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
Vulnerable tenancies a growing issue despite COVID recovery
Pamela Hunter Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)On 11th March 2020 the World Health Organisation declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic. The world was in crisis, and no one was exempt. As a result, the NSW Government recognised the importance of providing everyone with the basic human right of sustainable housing and introduced a moratorium on evicting tenants who were financially impacted by COVID-19. The moratorium highlighted that everyone deserves the right to stable housing, including tenants. Whilst the moratorium and transition period may have ceased on 12th February 2022, the human rights objective of it should not. Tenants should still have access to stable housing and the peace of mind that comes with it. Many vulnerable tenants that VERTO works with were in crisis well before March 2020 and will continue to face personal crises into the future. A crisis should not have to make the world stage before our most vulnerable people have safeguards implemented.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/vulnerable-tenancies-growing-iss…
# NSW, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Human rights, State Government.Housing affordability takes a global hit from Covid-19
Hal Pawson The Fifth Estate (No paywall)With newly released evidence of slowing house price inflation in early 2022, it could be that Australia’s latest property boom is subsiding. Especially with higher interest rates expected within months, it seems highly likely. But any plateau or even gentle decline will be starting from property values dramatically higher than before the pandemic. Far from triggering a property market crash, as widely expected, the 2020 Covid-19 recession turns out to have activated an extraordinary residential price surge. And, as highlighted in our new international comparative research, Australia is far from alone in this. The equivalent Covid-19 house price increases in New Zealand and the United States have been even greater.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/housing-a…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing affordability, Housing market, International.'It's a human rights issue': Renters' wellbeing focus of petition
Miriam Webber Canberra Times (No paywall)Rental agreements need to recognise housing is a human rights issue, and that principle should be enshrined in the ACT's Residential Tenancies Act, an e-petition to the ACT government says. Principal petitioner Dr Adam Hughes Henry said the strain of having to move his family last year, including young children and elderly mother, had moved him to action. ... Sponsoring MLA Andrew Braddock said he had chosen to get behind the call for a wellbeing clause because of "the need to recognise that we're talking about somebody's home, when you're talking about rental agreements".
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7658070/its-a-human-right…
# Australia, Rent, Home, Human rights, State Government.The ACT Is Trying To Make Landlord References Legal, So Every Canberran Owes Tom Cashman A Beer
Lavender Baj (No paywall)Every renter in Canberra owes comedian Tom Cashman their gratitude because a new motion being introduced in the ACT Legislative Assembly could soon see prospective renters be able to ask for landlord references. (Junkee)
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents, State Government.Housing Market Interventions and Residential Mobility in the San Francisco Bay Area
Urban Displacement Project (No paywall)From California ... To address the housing affordability crisis and mitigate displacement and exclusion, policymakers must pursue not only preservation of unsubsidized affordable housing, but also bolder initiatives such as social housing – the provision of rental or homeownership units affordable at a moderate income or below, run by a public or nonprofit entity. Matching the urgency of the housing crisis would require wide implementation and investment. [This website certainly is worth checking out]
# Research alert International, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, No-grounds evictions.Investors Are Buying Mobile Home Parks. Residents Are Paying a Price.
Sophie Kasakove The New York Times (Paywall)From the United States ... Across the country, corporate landlords are expanding manufactured housing portfolios and driving up rents, pushing longtime residents out. When Sarah Clement moved to the Golden Hills mobile home park two years ago, she felt like she had won the lottery. After years of squeezing into one-bedroom apartments with her, her 7-year-old son finally settled into his own bedroom, his toys splayed out in the yard and his school just at the edge of the park. Ms. Clement loved the friendliness of her neighbors and getting to watch the sun rise over the scrubby mesa to her east and set behind the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the west. ... But just six months after she moved in, the plot of land and all of the stability and comfort that came with it seemed suddenly ripped out from under her. The Colorado couple that owned the park for years had put it up for sale.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/27/us/mobile-home-park-ownership…
# International, Land lease communities, Landlords and agents, Personal stories.We need to talk about the rent
Charles Firth (No paywall)As the Liberal Party desperately searches for a new minority group to attack, while the Labor Party desperately ducks and weaves its way to unexpected defeat this election, there is a glaring topic that is front of mind for 32% of the population. We need to have a national conversation about renting in Australia. Of course, we won’t. To say Australia’s political system is captured by the propertied classes is an understatement. Of the 227 politicians currently serving in Federal parliament, 212 own at least one house. Put another way, the housing affordability crisis that currently besets 32% of Australian voters who rent their home, doesn’t affect 94% of our politicians. Not only that, but 58% – 133 members of the Federal parliament – own more than one house. Albanese owns 3, in case you’re wondering. (The Shot)
https://theshot.net.au/economics/we-need-to-talk-about-the-rent/
# Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.Can good rental history substitute for a house deposit? Young Australians struggle with home ownership dream
Fiona Blackwood ABC (No paywall)Missy Harwood grew up thinking that — like for her parents before her — home ownership in Tasmania was an achievable dream. Now she is losing faith. ... But the 30-year-old mother of two has some ideas about how to make home ownership a reality. She would like banks to recognise rental history as evidence of the capacity to service a home loan, rather than requiring increasingly larger deposits.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-24/rental-history-instead-of…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.