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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
How a mobile-home park saved its community from a corporate buyout
Kirbie Bennett and Jamie Wanzek High Country News (No paywall)USA: In southwest Colorado, a cooperative and a land trust partnered to preserve affordable housing. On a quiet day this spring, Alejandra Chavez walked into her office at Westside Mobile Home Park in Durango, Colorado. Residents were gathered in the community space, discussing their plans for the park’s future, some leaning on the kitchen’s baby-blue counters while others sat in plastic lawn chairs. A year ago, this building was owned by a New York corporation and was off-limits to residents. But now, residents use the space for yoga, child care and community events.
https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-housing-how-a-mobile-home-par…
# International, Land lease communities, Rent, Co-operatives and resident-led housing, Home, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, International, Rent to buy, Renting culture.NZ rents up 83 percent in 20 years, but interest rates not the biggest contributor - Treasury, Reserve Bank
Mark Quinlivan Newshub (No paywall)Aotearoa New Zealand: A new report by multiple agencies has found supply and demand and wage inflation are the two biggest contributing factors to rising rents in New Zealand. Research by agencies including the Treasury, Reserve Bank and Housing and Urban Development Ministry said average rents rose 83 percent between 2003 and 2022.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2023/08/nz-rents-up-83-perc…
# International, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market, International.Housing is a direct federal responsibility, contrary to what Trudeau said. Here’s how his government can do better.
Carolyn Whitzman and Alexandra Flynn The Conversation (No paywall)Canada: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated that “housing isn’t a primary federal responsibility” at a funding announcement in Hamilton, Ont. on July 31. This statement is neither accurate nor politically smart, with recent polls suggesting that 70 per cent of Canadians think the Liberal government isn’t adequately addressing the high and growing cost of housing.
https://theconversation.com/housing-is-a-direct-federal-responsi…
# International, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, International, Local Government.Airbnb Hosts Try to Evade City Regulations, From Copenhagen to Catalonia
Feargus O'Sullivan and Jessica Loudis Bloomberg (No paywall)As tourists flood back, cities have responded with a flurry of new rules on short-term rentals. But policing this housing sector remains a challenge. It’s been almost 15 years since the launch of Airbnb Inc. kicked off a global boom in short-term home rentals, and it still feels as if no city has yet found the right formula for regulating the sector. But it’s certainly not for lack of trying.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-08-02/cities-keep-t…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Anti-social behaviour, Home, Housing market, International, Local Government, Renting culture, Short-term holiday letting.Economists Support Nationwide Rent Control in Letter to Biden Admin
Roshan Abraham Vice (No paywall)USA: "All the empirical literature suggests that the basic economic story does not hold" when it comes to anti-rent control arguments, said one economist. A group of 32 economists have signed a letter released Thursday supporting the use of rent control nationwide, joining a campaign asking the federal government to regulate rents in buildings with government-backed mortgages.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d9yvz/economists-support-nation…
# International, Rent, Housing market, Human rights, International.Everyone loves having somewhere to live and yet Australia has decided some people should miss out. Why?
First Dog on the Moon The Guardian (No paywall)If you wanted a home you should have been born before we sold off all the public housing to developers!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/07/everyone-l…
# Australia, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Repairs, Campaigns and law reform, Home, Homelessness, No-grounds evictions, Renting culture, Strong communities.Modernising Consumer Protection in Renting: From Individualised to Systemic Protections
Leo Patterson Ross Parity (No paywall)Over the last 50 years, tenancy acts have been directed by the results of the national inquiry conducted by Ron Sackville as part of the Whitlam poverty inquiries. The recommendations of that inquiry built on previous attempts to carve out protections from the common law and balance the individual interests of a renter and a landlord. What will drive reform in the coming years and decades? I believe it needs to be a shift to protection and regulatory design at the systemic level.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/modernising-consumer-protection-…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Landlords and agents, Renting culture.A call to arms for architects and planners: We must refurbish public housing, not knock it down
Alistair Sisson The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Last week, contractors began the demolition of Sydney’s Arncliffe estate, a 1940s public housing scheme of 140 apartments across multiple three-storey double-brick walk-ups. Most of the estate’s residents were relocated before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Australia. Other than being used during lockdowns as emergency accommodation, the homes have now sat empty for several years.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/a-call-to-arms-fo…
# Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Planning and development.