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
UK Rental Market Report
(No paywall)“The structural undersupply of rental property across the UK, amid higher levels of demand, will underpin rental growth in 2022.”• Strong rental demand in Q3 pushes rental growth to the highest level in 13 years. Executive summary:
• UK rents are rising at +4.6% per annum, amid a doubling of
demand in major city centres
• London rental growth swings back into positive territory after 16
months of falls, as offices and city life resumes
• Rental demand will remain higher than supply – the availability
of properties to let is 43% below the five-year average
• Even with rental growth, affordability of rents across the UK
remain in line with the five-year average, at 37% of income
• Rental growth in the UK excl London is at +6%, and we expect this
growth to ease to 4.5% by the end of 2022
• We expect London rental growth to be at 3.5% at the end of 2022
https://www.hometrack.com/media/679077/uk-rental-market-q3-final…
# International, Rent, Housing market.Bulletin
Housing for the Aged Action Group (No paywall)In putting together this meeting and Annual Report, we've realised just how much we've still been able to achieve, putting Housing for the Aged Action Group on a great trajectory to keep improving the housing and lives of older people around the country.
https://mailchi.mp/f8935d5b9ac5/older-tenants-voice-summer-editi…
# Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Older people.Millionaire nation: One in four Australian homes now worth more than $1m
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)One in every four homes across Australia is now worth $1 million or more, with property owners adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to their net wealth during the pandemic. The valuation of the nation’s housing stock ... has revealed property owners in greater Sydney are now more likely than not to have a million dollar home, with 52 per cent of homes worth seven figures. In greater Melbourne, more than a third of homeowners can make the claim their property is worth over this amount.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/millionaire-nation-one-i…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Turning down free money: landlords and the problem of the split incentive
Riley Brooke Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)On November 11 the NSW ban on evictions for impacted tenants ended. We’ve now moved into a period of transitional protections. ... Another change from November 11 is that renters who meet the eligibility requirements as 'Covid-19 impacted tenants' will now be able to directly apply for the residential tenancy support payment. While the relief payments were a welcome new initiative in the 2021 package, limiting the ability to apply for the payment only to landlords was a problem.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/turning-down-free-money-landlord…
# NSW, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.How the Pandemic Worsened a Housing Crisis in the Bronx
Jose A. Alvarado Jr. The New York Times (Paywall)In a New York City borough where residents have long struggled to afford their homes, thousands are now threatened with eviction as state pandemic aid dwindles. Livia Fernandez used to commute every day from her one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx to an Ecuadorean restaurant in Queens, where she worked as a cook and earned $700 a week. But when the pandemic hit New York City last year, the restaurant shut down, and she lost her job. Ms. Fernandez got Covid-19 in March 2020, and ever since she has felt weak and unable to work. Her two young daughters were also infected. For 20 months, Ms. Fernandez has not paid her $1,400 rent — she owes more than $28,000. Her landlord has yet to demand payment, instead hoping that Ms. Fernandez would qualify for a state pandemic relief program. But with the rent relief program now nearly out of money, Ms. Fernandez knows her housing situation is precarious. “Where will I go with two daughters?” Ms. Fernandez said. “I can’t live in the streets.”The pandemic has left millions of people across the country jobless and on the brink of losing their homes. But few places better illustrate the escalating housing crisis than the Bronx, where working-class residents have long struggled to afford the city’s rising cost of living. Before the pandemic, more than one-third of households in the Bronx spent at least half their income on rent.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/nyregion/bronx-evictions-hous…
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Personal stories.Blind and evicted: the last person to leave Sirius building
John Dunn The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Myra Demetriou passed away on October 23 at the age of 94. She is remembered not only as the face of the Sirius campaign, but also the last public housing tenant forced out of Sirius.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/blind-and-evicted-the-last-perso…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Estate renewal, Personal stories.Healing trauma with whispers and clicks
ABC (No paywall)When the pandemic kicked off and heaps of Australians lost work, the federal and state governments made an unusual commitment to protect renters from being evicted. But now almost all of those protections are gone. [Starts at: 57 seconds] (Triple J Hack)
# TUNSW in the media, Audio Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, No-grounds evictions, Personal stories, Regional NSW, State Government.Hear Us: A National Tenants’ Bill of Rights Is Foundational for Race Equity
Nia Johnson (No paywall)From the United States ... Since the House passage of the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act, the Biden administration is seemingly confident about getting the Build Back Better Act signed into law. For anyone who cares about having a roof over their head, it’s notable that President Biden’s $1.75 trillion framework includes significant cuts from an original $3.5 trillion budgetary plan. More cuts can be expected to an already truncated plan as the bill moves through the Senate. Though many policymakers and pundits tout this legislation as an unprecedented investment in affordable housing, the optimism is unwarranted. Low-income tenants would likely agree, including people of color such as Michelle Sullivan. ... Today’s housing crisis is an affordability crisis. But it’s also a dignity crisis, a morality crisis, and a corporate power crisis that values profit over people. A national Tenants’ Bill of Rights alone won’t fully deliver equity and justice, but it’s an essential step in the right direction.
https://nextcity.org/urbanist-news/entry/hear-us-a-national-tena…
# Must read International, Eviction, Rent, Repairs, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing affordability, Housing market, Human rights, Minimum habitability standards.