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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
First public land slated for housing revealed, but no word on Illawarra sites
Natalie Croxon Illawarra Mercury (Soft Paywall)New homes will be built in Camden under the NSW government’s release of surplus public land, but the government is remaining tight-lipped as to whether any sites will become available in the Illawarra. The government revealed on Monday the first of the 44 locations identified in an audit of public land to free up sites for the construction of 30,000 new homes, as the state contends with an ongoing crisis. The estimated 10 homes in Camden will be a mix of public and affordable homes and will be built on Menangle Road.Another 500 homes – half of which will be social and affordable dwellings – will be constructed at the Carriageworks precinct near Redfern Station in North Eveleigh, up to 83 homes will be built in Kellyville, and Camperdown will gain 100-plus homes. As she announced the first sites, Housing Minister Rose Jackson said more would be released progressively over the coming months.
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.‘A diabolical mess’: How did we get into this housing crisis, and how do we get out?
Angus Holland and Josh Gordon The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)ienna, the celebrated home of Freud, Mozart, Beethoven and cherry strudel, is in many ways quite similar to Sydney and Melbourne. All three regularly compete for the (somewhat dubious) title of “world’s most liveable city”. All have good coffee, low-ish crime, attractive historic buildings, opera houses and excellent pastries (OK, Vienna wins on the strudel, not to mention its famous Sachertorte and the artery-clogging Cremeschnitte). In one critical way, though, the Austrian capital is completely different to Australia’s major cities. In Vienna, around half the population lives in public housing.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-diabolical-mess-how-did-we-get…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing.Treaty inquiry slams 'illusion of concern' on housing
SBS (No paywall)Victoria's truth telling inquiry has grilled the state's housing minister over a lack of progress in improving outcomes for Aboriginal Victorians. Giving evidence at the Yoorrook Justice Commission, state Housing Minister Harriet Shing apologised for the dispossession of land and ongoing disadvantage faced by Aboriginal communities. "We created Aboriginal homelessness and then we turned away from it, and for too long, we refused to even acknowledge that its existence and impact was our doing," Ms Shing told the commission.
"For that, I am sorry."
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/treaty-inquiry-slams-illusio…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters, Eviction.Landlords making 'baseless' claims on rental bonds as a matter of course, law firm claims
Jesse Thompson ABC (No paywall)The way Judy saw it, many contracts come with a cooling-off period. She didn't expect withdrawing from a new lease to be much different. It was late in 2022 when a dispute over the move-in date led Judy to reconsider her new tenancy in a three-bedroom home in Melbourne's inner-west. "Within an hour of signing the lease, we made it clear we didn't want to move in," the lifelong renter, who only wanted her first name used, said. "We didn't receive the keys. We thought it would be a fairly clean-cut exit and requested my [bond] deposit was returned."
She was proven wrong the hard way.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-02/landlords-making-baseless…
# Must read Australia, Bond.Aussie landlords refusing to pass on rent hikes
Ellen Hill news.com.au (No paywall)There’s something happening in Australian rentals that is, well, very unexpected. National median rents (the weighted average from the eight Australian capital cities) increased 2.8 per cent for houses and 6.9 per cent for other dwellings in the March 2024 quarter, according to the Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA). And rents jumped 33 per cent in the two years to January 2024, with a typical renter in a capital city paying $150 more for their lodgings each week. But some landlords are bucking the trend and refusing to hike the cost of lodging.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/aussie-landlords-refusing-to-pas…
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Rent.South Australian rental reforms to begin on July 1 to make renting easier
Sowaibah Hanifie 7 News (No paywall)The rules around renting a property in South Australia will soon become more relaxed for tenants. Major changes to the state’s rental laws begin on July 1, making it harder for landlords to terminate a lease and easier for pet owners to find housing. Under the changes, landlords will need prescribed grounds to terminate a fixed lease or not renew a periodic tenancy. This can include breaches by the tenant, and wanting to sell, renovate or occupy the property. They will need to provide 60 days notice to end a fixed tenancy, up from the previous 28 days. Rental properties will need to comply with minimum housing standards under the new rules.
https://7news.com.au/news/south-australian-rental-reforms-to-beg…
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Rent.Why are Australian homes so cold and can we warm them up in an affordable way?
ABC (No paywall)Much of Australia is having a cold snap right now — with sub-zero temperatures in six different states and territories. And it can be very nice in those times to curl up in a warm room with a hot cuppa, and forget about the world outside. Unfortunately, many Australian homes barely keep the cold outside, and that affects our energy bills, which are already high. What can we do to warm up our homes, both this winter and in the future?
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/lifematters/australian-ho…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas.Homelessness in bitter winter means mouldy, damp and wet conditions for rough sleepers
Conor Burke and Nakita Jager ABC (No paywall)Shane Sweeney wakes up most mornings in damp bed sheets after a night of rough sleeping on the frosty banks of the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga Wagga. The former shearer, who turns 50 this year, sleeps in a makeshift home made from blue tarps and gazebos. Recent sub-zero temperatures have left everything wet and dank, and have made sleep elusive. "I tend to wake up two or three times or more … everything's moist, and your body reacts, you're just too cold to sleep," he said. Parts of Australia are recording their coldest temperatures in more than a decade — with spells of rain and icy weather expected to continue this week — and people sleeping rough are bearing the brunt. Mr Sweeney said he has struggled this winter to stay warm.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-30/homeless-bearing-brunt-of…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas.