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
Rents could ease as housing supply outstrips demand until 2023
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The coronavirus pandemic and its impact on population growth will cut demand for new homes across the country by 268,000, hitting the job-heavy construction sector in Sydney and Melbourne before slowly recovering from 2023. … [The] National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation predicts downward pressure on rents in some high-demand areas but cautions this could be short-lived with a return to declining affordability if builders aren't able to match supply.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rents-could-ease-as-hous…
# Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.‘“Leaning and unstable” Mascot Towers poses “genuine safety risk to public”, letter claims
Tim Swanson (No paywall)Sydney's trouble-plagued Mascot Towers are "leaning" and remain so unstable, businesses in the building will no longer be accessible from Friday, a legal letter has revealed. Such is the risk to public safety, the owners of shops and restaurants on the building's ground floor have been told an exclusion zone will be set up around some areas next week.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-14/mascot-towers-leaning-and…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.‘“Everyone’s a winner”: PICA Group secures Australian-first strata solar electricity deal
Roxanne Fitzgerald The Fifth Estate (No paywall)An electricity deal struck for both the good of the planet and thousands of residential tenants has been labelled a win-win by academics. One of Australia’s largest property and strata services organisations PICA Group recently secured what it claims is an industry-first solar energy deal …
https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/every…
# NSW, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas.NSW domestic violence victims now have more flexibility to break leases but the real estate industry is worried’
Mridula Amin ABC (No paywall)Being able to break her lease without a financial hit is what Rani believes kept her alive after her violent ex-husband followed her home after her daughter's birthday dinner. Were it not for the help of LegalAid lawyers, she would've been penalised $2,500 to break her lease — she admits the hefty cost caused her to hesitate.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-16/nsw-domestic-violence-lea…
# Hot topic NSW, Domestic violence, Rent.Forced out during a health crisis: Renters' stories #MovingMonday
Lauren Berends Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)… for residential renters eviction is a massive upheaval. So we thought we'd take this opportunity to share renters' stories of eviction and moving via a series of #MovingMonday videos
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/forced-out-during-health-crisis-…
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Coronavirus COVID-19, Personal stories.Veterans in need of housing are at risk of being forgotten because of the pandemic
Steve Rolfe The Conversation (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Imagine leaving your job, moving house and trying to find a new social identity all at the same time. Most of us never have to do all of these things at once, but this is the experience of many people as they leave the Armed Forces in the UK.
https://theconversation.com/veterans-in-need-of-housing-are-at-r…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Khan tells councils to provide hotel rooms for rough sleepers as temperatures drop
Nathaniel Barker Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Councils in London were told to open emergency accommodation for rough sleepers for this first time this year as temperatures were forecast to drop below freezing.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/khan-tells-councils-to-prov…
# International, Homelessness, Local Government.Room with a $US42b view: Airbnb investors book in for dream listing
Elizabeth Knight The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Buying into technology floats that have no near term prospects of making profits is one thing. But placing a valuation of as much as $US42 billion ($56 billion) on the COVID-ravaged Airbnb initial public offering says plenty about investor preparedness to view value in the post-pandemic world. This week investors were asked to digest a 25 per cent upward repricing of the value of Airbnb shares in the lead up to its IPO despite COVID infection rates rising as most of the world (other than Australia) is being ravaged by second and third waves of the pandemic.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/room-with-a-us42b-view…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Short-term holiday letting.