Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
A Landlord ‘Underestimated’ His Tenants. Now They Could Own the Building.
Ronda Kaysen The New York Times (Paywall)When a new landlord bought their building in the Bronx and threatened to raise rents and kick them out, tenants banded together. They never expected how far they might get: the chance to buy their apartments for $2,500 each.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/06/realestate/tenants-eviction-p…
# International, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Landlords and agents.‘Homes aren’t safe’: Western Sydney prepares evacuation shelters for hot summers
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Councils in western Sydney are planning to set up heat refuges for residents forced out of their homes by extreme heat, as part of a plan to prepare for dangerously hot summers. The Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils has also called for heatwaves to be treated as seriously as fires and floods.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/homes-aren-t-safe-western-sy…
# NSW, Local Government, Planning and development.With high prices and soaring rents, what are political parties promising to do about housing?
Daniel Ziffer ABC (No paywall)f the great Australian dream is the security of owning your home, the election campaign might feel like waking late to discover the alarm on your phone has been ringing loudly for some time. There are a lot of problems in housing. For people who rent, vacancies are at record lows just as Australia re-opens borders largely shut since the COVID pandemic took off in 2020. For people paying mortgages, the Reserve Bank has just lifted rates and is set to keep doing so, making mortgage repayments more expensive. For people trying to buy, prices are cooling after rocketing up in recent years, but higher interest rates will reduce what banks can lend you.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-09/political-parties-electio…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.Despite property booms across Australia, safe and secure housing remains out of reach for many
Felicity James and Tobias Jurss-Lewis ABC (No paywall)For those with a stake in the housing market, the past few years have probably been a dream come true. Many Australian towns and cities have ridden a housing boom – but what about those who have been left behind?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-08/australia-housing-and-ren…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing market.Landlords face higher mortgage repayments. Will renters share the pain?
Sezen Bakan The New Daily (No paywall)Landlords are facing higher mortgage repayments after the Reserve Bank lifted the cash rate for the first time since 2010. But what does that mean for renters? ... Better Renting executive director Joel Dignam said landlords charge as much rent as possible based on the advice of their property managers. He said this means rents are already so high that landlords have little room to take them higher.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2022/05/04/renters-i…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.How our bushfire-proof house design could help people flee rather than risk fighting the flames
Deborah Ascher Barnstone The Conversation (No paywall)By 2030, climate change will make one in 25 Australian homes “uninsurable” if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated, with riverine flooding posing the greatest insurance risk, a new Climate Council analysis finds. As a professor of architecture, I find this analysis grim, yet unsurprising. One reason is because Australian housing is largely unfit for the challenges of climate change.
https://theconversation.com/how-our-bushfire-proof-house-design-…
# Australia, Climate change, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Understanding the lived experience and benefits of regional cities
Laura Crommelin, Todd Denham, Laurence Troy, Jason Harrison, Hulya Gilbert, Stefanie Dühr and Simon Pinnegar AHURI (No paywall)The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated concerns about housing affordability and access to services for people living in regional Australia. This research investigates the lived experience of regional city residents (in five case studies) to understand how the benefits and disadvantages of regional city life are perceived and explore attitudes towards population growth.
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/news/jobs-services-and-housing…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Planning and development.Thousands of households staring down eviction as federal rental scheme winds up
Matt Dennien The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More than 2000 Queensland households, including 337 across the federal electorates of Brisbane and Longman, will be left paying market rent or face eviction by December under the continued phase-out of the National Rental Affordability Scheme. But amid serious concerns about housing and cost-of-living pressures, major parties are yet to devise a direct replacement for the maligned scheme, which is set to fold entirely by 2026. By that time, another 6000 households statewide will be left without a cheaper rental option.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/queensland/thousands-of-househol…
# Australia, Eviction, Affordable housing, Federal Government.