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
Hoarder Queenslander house up for sale deemed unsafe to enter
Melissa HeagneyDomain (No paywall)
A hoarder house filled to the brim with broken furniture and rubbish has been deemed too dangerous to enter, but, this being Australian real estate, it’s not bothering buyers.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/ramshackle-west-end-house-up-for-…
# Australia, Health, Housing market.Renters worried about inspections breaching Sydney COVID restrictions, warns tenants union
David TaylorABC (No paywall)
It is becoming clear the Greater Sydney COVID-19 lockdown, and its effect on the property market, is presenting challenges for renters. But what they fear most, according to the Tenants Union of NSW, is having strangers who are potentially infectious with COVID-19 moving through their home on inspection days if their landlord decides to sell. The tenants union said that under Sydney lockdown restrictions, real estate agents were only allowed to show homes to one person a day and could only do that twice a week. But CEO of the Tenants Union of NSW, Leo Patterson Ross, said he had heard from tenants who said some realtors had been trying to break this limit. You also can listen to the audio of the same story at: [https://www.abc.net.au/radio/sydney/programs/pm/renters-fear-covid-exposure-during-open-house-inspections/13480424] (ABC PM)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-04/renters-worried-about-ins…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media, Audio NSW, Privacy and access, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Regional NSW.What tenancy protections are available for renters after the moratorium ends?
(No paywall)
As Australia transitions out of the COVID-19 emergency period and moratoriums come to an end, several measures remain to support tenants and landlords. We’ve rounded up the key changes and financial support measures for each state and territory to help you navigate this period. (rent.com.au)
https://www.rent.com.au/blog/covid-support-measures
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.The eviction moratorium in the U.S. expired. Here’s how other countries handled such bans.
Miriam Berger(No paywall)
A U.S. federal ban on evictions expired Saturday, nearly 11 months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the moratorium in place to keep people from losing their homes during the coronavirus pandemic. ... Other countries — including Britain, Spain and Australia — similarly imposed measures banning evictions and rent increases for individuals and businesses affected by the pandemic. Some of those programs are being rolled back, and housing advocates have warned that millions ... risk losing their homes in the coming months as a result. Here’s where some of these measures stand in comparison with the United States. (The Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/01/eviction-rent-mo…
# TUNSW in the media International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, International.Homeless camp pops up at Parliament as Perth mourns deaths of 56 rough sleepers
Marta Pascual JuanolaThe Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)
A homeless tent city has appeared on the doorstep of Parliament to protest the shortage of affordable housing in Western Australia. About a dozen people slept in tents and mattresses at Solidarity Park on Tuesday night, flanked by two banners with the words “housing crisis, humanitarian crisis”. Volunteers helped the rough sleepers with warm drinks, food, and clothing. It comes six months after homeless people camped at Pioneer Park in Fremantle as the state’s housing crisis reached breaking point, and just hours after mourners gathered at the steps of Parliament to honour Noongar mother-of-six Alana Garlett, who died in hospital after falling ill while sleeping rough in Perth’s CBD. ... [The Fremantle camp] pushed the homelessness issue to the fore and became a hot topic in the lead-up to the March state election. Campers were moved into temporary accommodation in hotels in February ... Some rough sleepers have since been transitioned into public housing, others remain in temporary arrangements while some have returned to the streets. Homelessness in Perth has soared since then, with people who never experienced financial woes now facing life in the streets. Some rough sleepers have since been transitioned into public housing, others remain in temporary arrangements while some have returned to the streets. Homelessness in Perth has soared since then, with people who never experienced financial woes now facing life in the streets. But advocates say it doesn’t go far enough and more investment in public housing is needed.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/homeless-camp-…
# Hot topic Australia, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, State Government.‘Terrifying, cold and a lot of loud noises’: Homeless young people falling through safety net
Jewel TopsfieldThe Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)
Homelessness organisations warn that young homeless people are falling through the gaps, with many existing homelessness services geared towards adults. Melbourne City Mission chief executive Vicki Sutton said a quarter of Victoria’s homeless population were aged between 12 and 24, with 6000 having no safe place to sleep each night. “Despite the alarming number of young people seeking help from homelessness services, they make up only 2.9 per cent of main tenants in current models of social and public housing,” Ms Sutton says.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/terrifying-cold-and-a-l…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Homelessness, Young people.Wall Street is buying up family homes. The rent checks are too juicy to ignore
Hanna Ziady(No paywall)
Housing markets are hotter than ever, and big money is getting in on the act. Pension funds, investment firms and Wall Street banks are snapping up family homes in Europe and the United States at a rapid pace as prices rocket higher, looking for alternatives to lockdown-hit office parks and shopping malls, and betting that a permanent increase in remote working following the coronavirus pandemic will keep demand for suburban houses elevated. At the same time, the soaring cost of home ownership means that growing numbers of younger Americans and Brits renting rather than buying houses as they start families and gravitate toward the suburbs. Some of them may find their next landlord is based on Wall Street or in London's financial district. Analysts argue that this will improve standards in the rental sector and offer more choice in desirable neighborhoods. But some tenants who rent from corporate landlords dispute this, alleging substandard services and excessive rent increases. (CNN Business)
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/02/business/family-homes-wall-st…
# International, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Lockdowns spark city exodus as thousands head to the hills
Shane Wright and Jennifer DukeThe Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)
Sydneysiders are abandoning the city in favour of cheaper housing and lockdown-free life in the state’s regions as the coronavirus pandemic up-ends migration around the country. A record net 11,800 people left the nation’s capital cities in the three months to the end of March, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday, with Sydney and Melbourne hit hardest by the pandemic-fuelled drain. ... Of those leaving Sydney, the biggest movement was by people aged between 45 and 64, with a net 2700 ditching the nation’s largest city. They took their children, with a net loss of 2100 people aged under 14.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/lockdowns-spark-city-exo…
# NSW, Housing market, Regional NSW.