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
Australian Housing Crisis Is a Human Rights Disaster, Expert Says
Bloomberg (No paywall)Australia is in the grips of a housing crisis, as home prices continue to climb with demand still outstripping supply. Kevin Bell, Adjunct Professor at Monash University and author of "Housing: The Great Australian Right," says the the government needs to rethink its policies because the crisis has turned into a human rights disaster. Bell also says the "housing anxiety" has turned the "Great Australian Dream" into the "Great Australian Nightmare".
# Must read, Video International, .How Australia's housing market compares to the rest of the world
Daniel Jeffrey 9 News (No paywall)Australia lags behind much of the world when it comes to home ownership, and households are taking on far more debt to buy a house than in other similar nations. Less than two-thirds of Australians (63 per cent) own their home outright or with a mortgage, according to a new report from AMP. That's slightly less than in a raft of comparable nations, including the United States (66 per cent), the United Kingdom (67 per cent) and New Zealand (65 per cent), and well behind some European countries such as Lithuania (92 per cent), Spain (75 per cent) and Italy (72 per cent).
https://www.9news.com.au/finance/australia-housing-market-compar…
# Hot topic International, .Allotment rent increases lowered after backlash
Alex Seabrook BBC (No paywall)A city's allotment rents will increase next year but by less than was previously planned. Bristol City Council wanted to more than double the charge for a plot, to help pay for a growing backlog of repairs. But tenants opposed the plans, claiming there was "no logic to the increases". Charges will now go up from £50 to either £66 without water or £76 with water. Chair of the public health committee Stephen Williams said: "We’ve tried to make the process as open as possible and to listen to all the viewpoints."
# Hot topic International, Rent, Repairs.Cafe owners stage sit-in after rent dispute
Joe McFadden BBC (No paywall)The owners of a cafe have staged a sit-in protest over being evicted from their rented premises. Adam Porrino and Tess Parkinson, owners of Café Blah, in Withington, south Manchester, claimed they had not been given a fair notice period. The pair alleged the property's landlords, letting agents H Homes, had "unfairly snatched away" their business and changed the locks during an ongoing lease renewal dispute. H Homes has been approached for comment.
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent.Squatters take London’s housing crisis into their own hands
Reuters Daily Telegraph (No paywall)In the shopping streets and housing estates of the south London town of Croydon, some once-derelict buildings are slowly coming back to life, as a group of squatters take over disused commercial premises to provide beds for the homeless. The Reclaim Croydon collective says it is providing a community-based solution to a broken housing market. Lauren Anthony reports.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/squatters-take-l…
# Hot topic International, .What do you really have to do for a rental inspection?
NZ Herald (No paywall)Aotearoa, New Zealand: Routine rental inspections can seem like an inconvenience. Every three months or so, tenants will need to worry about how clean the place they’re renting needs to be to pass the grade. Is the landlord or property manager going to open the wardrobes and cupboards? Will I be forced to pay for that worn-out carpet which was old anyway? While these check-ups may feel annoying, they can help protect the tenant from unfair claims at the end of a tenancy, says Ray White business development manager Jessica Currie, who has 15 years of experience in Auckland property management.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/what-do-you-really-have-to-do-for-…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Starting a tenancy.Could Aboriginal-designed housing help solve the health crisis in remote communities?
Otis Filley The Guardian (No paywall)It’s hotter inside than out in many of the homes in the remote Northern Territory town of Tennant Creek, where the Warumungu man Jimmy Frank Jupurrurla and his family live. Most lack insulation and guttering. At Drive-in Camp outside town, the homes are tin sheds, disconnected from services since the 2007 intervention but still occupied. The poor housing is making the residents sick, Jupurrurla says: “I worry about the future – will my grandchildren and their kids be living in prison-like houses? Or are we going to start designing homes that allow us to practise our culture?”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/oct/13/could-abo…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters, Discrimination.How many properties do politicians own? A public register of their interests provides the answer
Tom Crowley, Ahmed Yussuf, Mark Doman, Katia Shatoba and Thomas Brettell ABC (No paywall)The revelation that Anthony Albanese had purchased a $4.3 million slice of “clifftop perfection” on the NSW Central Coast set tongues wagging. Not only because the listing made it sound like something out of Grand Designs, replete with “mesmerising ocean views” and “timber-lined cathedral ceilings” — perfect fodder for the national pastime of property stickybeaking. But also because he is the prime minister and will soon face voters in an election in which housing affordability woes are sure to feature.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-16/how-many-properties-do-au…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, .