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
Hidden victims of council’s 87pc rates hike
Stephen Nicholls realestate.com.au (No paywall)Tenants in North Sydney may face a rent hike and some older home owners “feeling the pinch” forced to sell because of an 87 per cent rise in council rates. A range of experts have “joined the outrage” following North Sydney Council’s decision at a fiery meeting Monday night to increase rates over two years, largely to fund a cost blowout on redeveloping the heritage-listed North Sydney Olympic Pool. Many said the council rate hike would affect property investors the most, encouraging some to sell and others to try to make renters pay for it.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/north-sydney-rate-hike-tenant…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent.More than 500 homes to be built on old WestConnex site near Sydney CBD, with 200 build-to-rent units
Nick Dole ABC (No paywall)The NSW government has unveiled plans to build more than 500 new homes on an old WestConnex site in Camperdown, dramatically expanding the number of dwellings expected to be built there. Given its proximity to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, at least 200 of the homes will be "build-to-rent" units, offered at a discount to essential workers, including nurses, as part of a $450 million program announced in last year's budget. The remaining 300 will be a mixture of private market and affordable homes, with ratios yet to be determined.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-10/500-new-homes-camperdown-…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Rent.Rents rise faster after disasters, but a federal program can help restrain excesse
Anthony W. Orlando The Conversation (No paywall)The wildfires raging across Los Angeles are setting the scene for a real estate nightmare. Thousands of homes and other structures are destroyed and hundreds of thousands of residents have been evacuated at various times. Many will not return for months, if ever. Homeless in an instant, they are now flooding the housing market, desperately seeking shelter. The Los Angeles housing market is poorly equipped for this crisis. It is already one of the nation’s most expensive markets to buy or rent a place to live, largely due to a significant and growing shortage of affordable housing.
https://theconversation.com/rents-rise-faster-after-disasters-bu…
# Hot topic International, Disasters.“Significantly Overstated”: Housing Supply Proposed For Broadway Plan May Be Hollow
Kerry Gold Storeys (No paywall)Rental housing in Vancouver is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver, with development projects barely pencilling out for those developers who have the necessary capital, and a lot of other sites sitting on hold. Renters can only pay so much, and as rents go up and rates go down, the shift to condominiums will increasingly make more sense, says Daryl Simpson, President of Townline. As part of an industry panel discussion Simpson told the Urban Development Institute (UDI) at their annual luncheon recently that a lot of projects in Vancouver’s 500-block Broadway Plan won’t be realized.
https://storeys.com/vancouver-broadway-plan-supply-overstated/
# International, .Landlords should foot ‘significant’ part of energy efficiency bill
Caitlin Doherty and Emily Beament Yahoo News (No paywall)Landlords should foot a “significant” amount of the bill to meet energy efficiency standards outlined in Government proposals, Ed Miliband has said. Under the plans put out for consultation, all private landlords in England and Wales will pay a maximum £15,000 cap to meet energy performance certificate (EPC) C or above by the end of the decade. The Government says the proposals could save renters £240 a year on average on their energy bills, and lift up to half a million households out of fuel poverty, as they will not have to spend so much heating cold, draughty homes.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/landlords-foot-significant-par…
# Hot topic International, Rent.‘We’d just switch everything off’: six in ten social housing tenants go without essentials to pay rent
Kesia Reeve and Paul Hickman The Conversation (No paywall)The social housing sector in England houses 4 million tenants (16% of the country’s households). The sector is home to some of the UK’s most vulnerable and poorest households, and paying rent is one of the biggest challenges they face. If they do not pay, they risk being evicted from their homes. Recent research we carried out for the Nuffield Foundation highlights the difficulties many tenants face paying their rent, and the sacrifices they have to make to do so.
https://theconversation.com/wed-just-switch-everything-off-six-i…
# Must read International, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent.Rogue landlords in England to face curbs on housing benefit income, says Labour
Rowena Mason The Guardian (No paywall)Rogue landlords in England will face curbs on how much housing benefit they can receive if their properties are substandard, Angela Rayner has said as she announced an extra £350m for affordable housing. The deputy prime minister presented the funding increase, adding to £500m already announced at the budget, as part of the government’s drive to build 1.5m homes. Alongside the extra money for affordable housing, Rayner will set out plans next week to crack down on exploitative landlords. Under the plans, there will be a new licensing scheme, tougher standards and the ability to stop housing benefit going to rogue and criminal supported housing landlords.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/12/rogue-landlords-…
# International, Rent.Renters enraged by detail in real estate’s ‘late rent policy’ document
Ally Foster news.com.au (No paywall)A document from a real estate agency appearing to suggest tenants get a bank loan or use credit cards in order to pay their rent on time has enraged Aussie renters. The document from Ray White Bankstown in Sydney was recently shared to a tenant support Facebook group by a person claiming to rent their home through the agency. The letter, which the renter said they received as part of their tenancy agreement documents, outlines the company’s “zero tolerance policy” for late rent payments and advises renters what will happen if they fall behind.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/renters-enra…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, .