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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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.

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Archive

Publish date
Key topics

Market Forces and Malpractice

James Meek
London Review of Books (No paywall)

ne morning​ in Manchester, in November 2023, a young man went looking for a place to stay. He’d lost his job and couldn’t pay the rent on his flat. When he asked the council for advice, they told him to stay put. He did, until the bailiffs came and changed the locks. He slept rough in a train station. He was on drugs. His phone was stolen; he told the police but there was an argument and he was arrested. The police released him, but he had nowhere to go. He remembered the address of an acquaintance, a man called Josh Morris, who has a solid career in HR and owned a two-bedroom flat in Skyline Chambers, one of the smart new blocks close to the synthetic neighbourhood that property developers have branded ‘Noma’. But Morris, too, had just been kicked out of his home. Six years after the death of 72 people in the fire that consumed Grenfell Tower in London, fed by cheap cladding that acted like solid petrol, the owners of the freehold on Morris’s building and the Manchester fire service had decided it was too dangerous for the occupants of its 107 flats to stay in their homes. They were told to evacuate at once and not return until further notice.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n13/james-meek/market-forces…

# Hot topic International, Security and safety.
 

Public Housing in Vienna, Austria


Action for Public Housing (No paywall)

Presentation by Greta Werner to Action for Public Housing about Public Housing in Vienna, Austria.

https://youtu.be/2NWK9b3Ymic?si=Js-uL58o6FHqvLK5

# Hot topic, Video International, Public and community housing.
 

NYC shuttered 80% of its Airbnbs in an attempt to make housing more affordable. All that's done so far is make hotels more expensive.

Eliza Relman and Dan Latu
Business Insider (No paywall)

Last September, New York City began enforcing its strict new regulations on short-term rentals. Since then, the number of legal short-term rentals listed on Airbnb and other platforms has plummeted. Less than a year into the city's policy, known as Local Law 18, it's not clear whether the near-ban is achieving one of its central goals: relieving pressure on the city's severe housing shortage. But as summer tourism heats up, the dearth of rentals and rising hotel-room prices mean visitors to the city are in for an even pricier trip than they probably bargained for.

https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-numbers-shrink-hotel-pric…

# Hot topic International, .
 

Cockroaches and balconies as bedrooms: How foreign student Valentina survived Sydney

Daniella White
The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)

When Chilean national Valentina Olivares arrived in Sydney in 2016 as an international student, the reality of life in Australia was far from the rosy picture painted by migration agents. She had to work cash-in-hand jobs and didn’t realise she had any employment rights. Then there was the struggle to find liveable accommodation, dealing with bullying landlords and dodgy share houses. “The agents say they will support students to find a job and say they have a list of employers with many jobs waiting with good salaries,” she said. “But this is not the reality. People are misled, there is misinformation.”

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/cockroaches-and-balconies-as…

# Hot topic NSW, Discrimination, Rent, Starting a tenancy.
 

NSW announces strata management industry reforms, including stricter rules on commissions and conflicts of interest

Linton Besser & Ninah Kopel
ABC (No paywall)

The NSW government has pledged to "stamp out bad behaviour" and strengthen oversight of the state's strata management industry in the wake of an ongoing ABC investigation that has revealed the systemic exploitation of unit owners and a widespread culture of kickbacks and secret commissions. Minister for Fair Trading Anoulack Chanthivong announced the reforms, promising to consult with the industry ahead of the introduction of new legislation in August. "These reforms are critical to supporting confidence in investing and living in strata schemes," he said. The changes proposed are to increase maximum penalties that can be imposed on strata agents, including for the failure to disclose "information about commissions", and strength the requirements to disclose conflicts of interest.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-25/nsw-government-announces-…

# Must read, Legal significance NSW, Rent, Strata.
 

$250 per bed: Outrage at 'opportunistic' landlords in Sydney's rental market

Miriah Davis
9 News (No paywall)

Opportunistic landlords are taking advantage of Sydney's spiralling rental crisis by charging rent "per bed" rather than per room, while potentially putting vulnerable tenants at risk through overcrowding. Dozens of listings plastered on Facebook Marketplace spruik beds in "share rooms" priced between $200 and $250 a week in sought-after locations such as the CBD and inner-east.  One ad boasts two single beds in a Chippendale sharehouse at $250 each per week, with the option of adding a third person at an undisclosed price.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/rental-listing-highlights-sydn…

# Must read NSW, Rent.
 

NCOSS Analysis: NSW Budget 2024-25


NCOSS (No paywall)

NCOSS celebrates the substantial investment into social housing. Alongside our members and other peak bodies, NCOSS has been calling for this type of action for many years. While there is certainly more to do, we recognise the significant and commendable steps the Government is taking to create long-term change around housing policy in NSW. The $5.1 billion to build 8,400 new and refurbished homes, with half prioritised for women and children escaping domestic violence, is a critical step towards rectifying decades of neglect of the social housing system. Similarly, the $528 million in homelessness services is much needed and welcome. However, this funding alone is not enough to address the housing crisis, and other key areas of the social service sector missed out.

https://www.ncoss.org.au/policy-advocacy/policy-research-publica…

# Must read, Research alert NSW, Rent.
 

David Koch Says Renters Should ‘Love’ Their Landlords & That’s Funnier Than His Five Joke Books

Lachlan Hodson
Pedestrian (No paywall)

Former host of Sunrise David “Kochie” Koch has used his newfound free time to write an opinion piece on the topic of who should be blamed for the ongoing rental crisis in Australia. In it he shared the controversial opinion that renters should “love your landlord” — proving yet again that comedy really was his area of expertise. In an opinion piece for The Nightly, the former financial journalist opened with a statement that tenants should not blame landlords for the skyrocketing rents, but the three levels of government.

https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/david-koch-love-your-landlords/

# Hot topic NSW, Rent.
 

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