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
Aussie landlord shot down after rent increase whinge backfires
news.com.au (No paywall)A landlord has copped backlash after whinging about not being able to illegally increase her tenant’s rent.
The rant, which was posted in the Landlords Australia Facebook group, started with the homeowner revealing they were hiking up their tenant’s rent, but there was one particular rule they were finding “frustrating”. “I find the 12 month limit between increases frustrating as it’s actually encouraging me to put it higher than I would have as I only get one shot at it,” she wrote. The landlord add that she if she were to err on the “low side” when it comes to the increase, then it was a “long time” before she could adjust it. In the majority of Aussie states and territories, rent can only be increased once every 12 months and, in many areas, the landlord must provide 60 days notice before the increase occurs.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/aussie-landl…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Public housing regularly being offered to people on NSW waitlist who have died
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)At least one person has died every month before finally being offered public housing in New South Wales, new data has revealed. Data provided to Guardian Australia after a freedom of information request shows that between April 2019 and March this year, 77 people who had already died were offered housing. This included 12 people in 2020 and 2021, 17 in 2022 and 11 in 2023. So far this year homes have been offered to two people who died while on the public housing waiting list. The real number of people who have died while on the waiting list will be higher because in some cases Homes NSW was told of a person’s death before the offer was made.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.theguardi…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media NSW, Public and community housing.NSW Govt caps site fees and embedded electricity network prices in Bill review
Ian Horswill The Weekly Source (No paywall)A statutory review of the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act, completed in 2021, made 48 recommendations to change the Act. The bill implements 21 of the recommendations. Anoulack Chanthivong, NSW Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, has launched the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Amendment Bill 2024, which will amend the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013. Among the changes, the bill will limit operators to using a single element to calculate a site fee increase under the fixed method, to improve clarity and certainty about such fee increases.
https://www.theweeklysource.com.au/community-living/nsw-gov-caps…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media, Legal significance, New policy announcement NSW, Land lease communities.The faces of Australia’s devastating housing crisis revealed as first-ever People’s Commission begins
Shannon Molloy news.com.au (No paywall)Lucie’s day begins at dawn when the Sydney mother heads off to the first of three jobs that she juggles in a desperate and exhausting bid to keep a roof over her family’s head. Eighty per cent of her income is swallowed by ever-rising rental costs and she’s forced to rely on food banks to feed her two teenage children. “To say I’m tired is an understatement,” Lucie* told Australia’s first-ever People’s Commission into the Housing Crisis. Hundreds of submissions have been received by the commission, which was organised by the group Everybody’s Home. Over two days, it will hear testimony from individuals and groups at the coalface of the worsening issue.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/the-faces-of…
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Rent.Addressing mental health impacts of flood-related displacement
University of Sydney (No paywall)A collaboration led by Sydney Environment Institute and the University Centre for Rural Health in Lismore is planning to investigate experiences of housing displacement in the Northern Rivers. Climate change is one of the leading causes of displacement across the world. In 2022 alone, more than 19 million people were displaced by floods. Increases in frequency of climate related disasters are increasing risk of people experiencing housing displacement, including in Australia. Floods in the Northern Rivers region of NSW in 2022 were demonstrative of this trend. Over 13,000 people used formal emergency accommodation, with many also drawing upon the informal support of family and friends.
https://www.sydney.edu.au/sydney-environment-institute/news/2024…
# Must read NSW, Disasters.NSW government floats new tax on holiday homes, short-term rentals to address housing crisis
Jessica Kidd ABC (No paywall)Short-stay rental properties in New South Wales could be hit with a new tax under a raft of measures being floated to ease the state's housing crisis. The NSW government released a discussion paper today to examine how short-stay rentals and holiday homes could be converted to long-term rental accommodation. Housing and Homelessness Minister Rose Jackson said the government would not "shy away" from the tough decisions needed to address housing affordability. "We know the housing crisis is real and we don't want any part of the housing market to be unexamined – everything's under the microscope," she said. Up to 35,000 homes across NSW are used as "non-hosted" short-term rental accommodation throughout the year, according to the discussion paper.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-15/nsw-short-term-holiday-ac…
# Hot topic, Legal significance NSW, .Families living in 'dirty, violent' caravan parks on NSW Central Coast as housing crisis worsens
Keira Proust ABC (No paywall)Services supporting people in need of housing say they are seeing more families being forced into "unsafe and filthy" caravan parks on the New South Wales Central Coast as affordable options dry up. The latest analysis from data firm CoreLogic showed rental prices across Australia had reached a record high, forcing more people out of the capital cities and into regional areas. Rachael Glasson from the Central Coast's biggest homelessness service, Coast Shelter, said more of their clients had been forced to move into run-down tourist parks and cabin-style accommodation over the past six months with many still unaffordable. "We recently had a client who was paying $550 a week for a studio room," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-23/families-struggle-filthy-…
# Must read NSW, Land lease communities, Rent.Vested interest groups putting themselves before Australia is a time-honoured tragedy
Gareth Hutchens ABC (No paywall)In 1983, Gerard Henderson wrote a famous article. It was titled "The Industrial Relations Club," and it described the vested interests that had grown like weeds around Australia's wage-setting institutions and been responsible for some of the economic malaise of the 1970s and early 1980s. Henderson said the "IR Club," whose members included the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, the ACTU, employer groups, and some government departments, had far too much economic influence. He said its members often disregarded economic realities and secured excessive wage increases for workers that worsened inflation and drove unemployment higher, while leaving governments to suffer the political consequences at the ballot box. "A key sector of the Australian economy is virtually controlled by club members," he wrote.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-26/vested-interests-self-int…
# Hot topic NSW, .