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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
Aboriginal man takes public housing eviction to Human Rights Commission alleging racism
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)An Aboriginal man who alleges his eviction from public housing in Western Australia is racial discrimination has been granted an injunction in the federal court, allowing him to stay at the property while he takes his complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission. John Abraham, a Noongar man, made a complaint to the Human Rights Commission against the WA Housing Authority in August after he received a “without grounds” termination notice, commonly called a no-grounds eviction notice. It requested he leave the public housing property he has lived in since 2020, the court heard on Friday.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/sep/20/aborigina…
# Legal significance Australia, Aboriginal renters, Discrimination, Eviction, Public and community housing, Human rights, No-grounds evictions.A home of one’s own: So good only the rich need apply
Ross Gittins The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Slowly – but sooner than you may think – this country, so proud to be a nation of home owners, is turning into a nation of renters. Perversely, it’s happening because we value home ownership so highly. And we’ve never much worried about what happens to those who don’t make it onto the home owners’ merry-go-round. ... Renters have much greater legal rights in other rich countries than they do here, but that’s never bothered us. Renters, we happily assume, are just youngsters on their way to their first home. This was never true, but it becomes more untrue as each census passes. ... Time we cared about renters.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/a-home-of-one-s-own-…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market.IUT calls for moratoria on evictions, energy price caps and long-term climate allowances for low- and middle income households
International Union of Tenants (IUT) (No paywall)On the occasion of the coming International Tenants Day, the IUT released the following press release calling for a moratoria on evictions, energy price caps and long-term climate allowances for low- and middle income households ... Housing costs are the highest expenditure of households. Inflation puts another burden on tenants. The current inflation rate in the OECD area is 10,23%. The energy prices increase is alarming: 100,1% in Estonia, 88,4% in the Netherlands, and 45,5% in Italy. Tenants, who represent almost 30% of the households in the OECD area (23.1 % in the private rental market and 5.7 % in social rent) are therefore at the forefront of the housing and energy crises. [Read on]
https://www.iut.nu/news-events/iut-calls-for-moratoria-on-evicti…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change.London council could seize oligarchs’ homes for affordable housing
Robert Booth The Guardian (No paywall)Homes acquired with “dirty money” in the richest parts of London could be seized and turned into affordable housing under plans to crack down on oligarchs using Belgravia, Knightsbridge and Mayfair “to rinse their money”. Labour-controlled Westminster city council is examining the use of compulsory purchase orders in extreme cases where it finds properties are not being used for their stated purpose, as part of a push to “combat the capital’s reputation as the European centre for money laundering”.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/21/london-council-c…
# International, Affordable housing, Housing market, Local Government.‘Completely unfair’: Sydney couple hit with $150 rent rise overnight
Jack Evans news.com.au (No paywall)A young couple have been priced out of their suburban Sydney home of two years by an astronomical rise in their weekly rent. A young Northmead man, who wished to remain anonymous, said a recent Notice of Rent Increase he received on Monday, September 12, upped his rent from $460 to $610 per week. ... Leo Patterson Ross, CEO of the Tenants’ Union of NSW, said while it might be a step too far to attribute this to pure greed, such a rise should not happen. He said a tribunal may consider market rents and adjust the price down, but it may not make it there to begin with. “Some agents and landlords just avoid going to the tribunal, because if it was tested under the law, it might not stand up,” he told news.com.au.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/completely-unfair-sy…
# TUNSW in the media, Video NSW, Rent, Tribunal NCAT.Turning mountains of landfill into the ultimate renovation rescue
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A year ago Mostafa “Moz” Azimitabar [a Kurdish refugee] became the first employee of the non-profit organisation ReLove, in Sydney’s Botany. It was ReLove’s founders Renuka Fernando and Ben Stammer who fitted out his empty flat in Petersham, even making the bed for him. ... It was a transformative experience for Azimitabar, and it’s one he’s helped ReLove replicate in 720 homes in the past year. Since the pandemic began, ReLove has provided about $9 million worth of furniture and white goods to a total of 900 homes.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/turning-mountains-of-landfil…
# Must read NSW, Home.Australians the world’s richest people as property prices supercharge wealth
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Australians are the wealthiest people in the world with a typical net worth of almost $US274,000 in 2021, just ahead of Belgium, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Soaring property prices lifted the median wealth per Australian adult by $US28,450 in 2021, according to Credit Suisse’s annual global wealth report, which tracks wealth in 20 countries. Also, read Margot Saville's article entitled: 'The "fair go" has gone and stage one of the revolution has happened' in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-fair-go-has-gone-and-stage-one-of-the-revolution-has-happened-20220920-p5bjmi.html].
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/australians-the-world-s-r…
# Australia, Rent, Families, Homelessness, Housing market, International.Passive houses grow in popularity as homebuyers look for energy efficiency, low environmental impact
David Chen ABC (No paywall)It sounds like it's from an episode of a TV architectural show: an airtight house fitted out with $60,000 worth of double-glazed windows imported from Poland.
But Toowoomba couple Michael Krause and Meegan Symonds have had to hose down expectations from friends and family. "They've all seen Grand Designs, so they all envisage a huge house and I had to play it down a bit and say it's just a normal house," Mr Krause said. The couple's new two-bedroom, one bathroom house, being built on a 380-square-metre parcel of land at Harlaxton in Toowoomba's northern suburbs, is set to become the southern Queensland city's second passive house.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-18/passive-houses-grow-in-po…
# Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Minimum habitability standards.