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
Art deco density: what we learned from Australia’s first apartment boom
Maddie Thomas The Guardian (No paywall)Almost 100 years ago Sydney was in dire peril from “the ravages of barbarians” – or so the newspaper reports would have had you believe. The perceived danger was one that echoes the current debate raging over density, as Australia’s capital cities struggle to reconcile competing demands for affordable housing and the preservation of heritage. “Flats rear their heads on some of [Sydney’s] noblest headlands,” Brisbane’s Courier reported in 1929. “They are invading suburbs which for years have been the pride of peaceful home-lovers, where the happy laughter of children has resounded in the streets.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/11/art-deco-…
# History Australia, .Should property investors know if tenants have posted about their last landlord?
Jim Malo The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Property managers are routinely checking if tenants have complained about their landlord or real estate agent on social media, particularly during the application process. Agents are likely to tell each other about tenants known to make disparaging comments on social media, the real estate industry peak body confirmed. Meanwhile, tenant advocates report that agents attempt to gain access to closed Facebook groups to see what tenants discuss behind closed doors.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/should-property-investors-k…
# Hot topic Australia, Discrimination.Taxes and levies for short-term rentals an option to help increase longer-term rental property availability
Sue Daniel, Jessica Kidd, Xanthe Gregory, and Bernadette Clarke ABC (No paywall)Nick Stone has been forced to move three times from one rental property to another over the last 12 months at Batemans Bay on the New South Wales south coast. After a marriage break up and in the middle of a lengthy property settlement, Mr Stone found himself relying on word of mouth to get his first rental, which chewed up 80 per cent of his income per week. "[You] feel very vulnerable and that has a direct impact on health and wellbeing," he said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-16/nsw-rental-crisis-discuss…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, .'Breach of human rights': Public housing residents file class action over demolition proposal
Sydney Lang and Gavin Butler SBS (No paywall)Residents of Melbourne's public housing towers are filing a class action lawsuit against the Victorian government, after it announced plans to demolish the towers and replace them with new social housing. Many tenants fear the development will mean less public housing, higher rent prices and disruptions to their community. Some have decided to take legal action for what they say is a breach of human rights.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/breach-of-human-rights-publi…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing.MP's housing claim on ABC raises eyebrows as 'help to buy' looms
Nick Whigham Yahoo News (No paywall)A major election promise of the Albanese government is due to kick in this year, making it easier for struggling renters to buy their first home. But one man who could stand in the way of the policy has rubbished it while appearing on ABC's Insiders program on Sunday morning. Promised by Labor ahead of the 2022 election, the prime minister used an August speech at the party's national conference to proclaim the scheme will commence in the first half of this year, after undertaking negotiations with state premiers and chief ministers. Under the program, the government would contribute up to 40 per cent of the value of a home for a new property or 30 per cent for an existing one for a first home buyer as part of a shared equity scheme. As a result, home buyers would then be able to contribute as little as two per cent for a deposit.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/mps-housing-claim-abc-raises-eyebrows-…
# Hot topic, Legal significance Australia, .Roaches in your rental – to leave or not to leave
Olivia Nielsen-Gurung Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)As someone who regularly talks to renters in NSW about tenancy issues, I have had many conversations, more than anyone should, about cockroaches. I grew up in a cold climate where there are no roaches, so when I moved to the humid tropical paradise for roaches also known as Sydney, I was horrified by their existence in my home – even more so when they would rain down from the kitchen cupboards and scuttle into the back of the fridge when I turned on the light in the middle of the night.
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Rent, Repairs, You want to leave.Housing reforms will ruin Bondi, council warns
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)Bondi Beach’s population will triple, with residential buildings casting shadows over the sand under a worst-case scenario, as the backlash intensifies against the Minns government’s housing reforms. Waverley Council also warned eight-storey apartment complexes could be built next to single-storey homes in the eastern suburbs under the state government’s low- and mid-rise housing proposal.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/housing-reforms-will-ruin-bo…
# Hot topic NSW, .Hundreds of apartments get green light but without affordable housing
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)Meriton has been given the green light to build more than 800 homes on an inner-city development site despite dumping plans to build affordable housing. A majority of City of Sydney councillors, led by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, last week voted to green light a proposal for the old Suttons car dealership site in Zetland. Meriton wants to build more than 800 homes as well as a new supermarket, childcare centre and public park on the site, but has backed away from an offer made to the council last year to build affordable homes there.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/hundreds-of-apartments-get-g…
# Hot topic NSW, .