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
‘Affordability ceiling has been smashed’: Sydney rents hit record highs
Tawar Razaghi and Elizabeth Redman The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Intense competition to find more affordable homes in Sydney is driving up rents for units, which rose another $20 to a record median asking rent of $720 a week in the past three months, new data shows. Despite marking the weakest June quarter since 2021 for rental growth, experts and tenants say conditions are still firmly a landlord’s market as rents rise in some of Sydney’s least expensive pockets. The asking rent for a typical house in Sydney held steady at its record of $750 in the June quarter, Domain’s Rent Report, released on Thursday, revealed. Amid the cost of living crisis, it is the first time it has stagnated in a year and a half. Some of the most affordable pockets of Sydney had the strongest rental growth.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/affordability-ceiling-has-b…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent.NSW govt breaks housing election promise
ABC (No paywall)VIDEO: The NSW government will sell a government-owned site to private developers to turn into 100 private homes, but critics say this sell is breaking an election promise. This site on Parramatta road in Camperdown is owned by the government, and for the last two years it's been empty.
# Must read, Hot topic, Video NSW, Public and community housing.Are derelict homes part of the answer to Australia's housing crisis?
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)Believe it or not, according to locals, this is the best condition these terrace houses have been in for decades. "I've been here for 25 years since [19]99 and it's been like that, actually it's been worse than this, since then," local resident Damien tells us as he stops to chat while walking his dog. "Just recently I've seen people doing a little bit of work to it, as you can see with the ladder, and it's look like they've given it a bit of a coat of paint or whitewash." While a lick of paint might have covered up the graffiti, it doesn't fix the holes in the roof, boarded up windows, missing balconies or plants growing out of the walls.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-04/derelict-homes-part-of-th…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.Sydney’s rental crisis reaches new highest, with a bed on a balcony listed for rent
7 News (No paywall)Sydney's rental madness has hit a new low with an enclosed balcony in the city advertised for more than $350 a week. Authorities have launched an investigation as experts warn Sydneys housing crisis is only going to get worse. "A new view of Sydneys rental crisis, that's about the size of it - a balcony bedroom - a sunny room, says the ad."
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent.The Sirius question: Inside the Sydney building rocking the property conversation
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When Owen McAloon, a long-standing public housing tenant of the Sirius building in the Rocks, hung the sign “One Way! Jesus!” to block the western sun from turning his unit into an oven, he didn’t expect it to become an icon, visible to any motorist heading into the city. McAloon later said his sign was designed as a talking point for anyone who saw it: “To get them thinking: ‘What does that mean?’ The conversion of the former housing commission flats into 75 luxury apartments – all sold bar seven apartments – still delivers: It gets people talking.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-sirius-question-inside-t…
# Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Rent.Fire upon fire as Woonona hoarder's home lights up the night
Angela Thompson Illawarra Mercury (Soft Paywall)A Woonona hoarder’s home that went up in smoke in April will become the subject of a second investigation, after an even mightier blaze finished off the property tonight. The April 3 fire, at a public housing property on Sussex St, was in its early stages when firefighters arrived that afternoon, so unnoticeable that first crews initially walked past it. Three months later, there was no missing the emergency, which sparked at least 10 triple-0 calls from about 6.30pm.
# Hot topic NSW, Disasters.No-fault evictions in NSW pushing 'more people into homelessness' but little movement on law change
Joseph Hathaway-Wilson ABC (No paywall)When businesswoman Eman Soliman was texted her eviction notice, she assumed it was a mistake. "There wasn't even a phone call to explain why it had happened," she said. Less than three months earlier, the single mother of two sons had signed a new lease and was told by the agent she could stay as long as she liked and even thanked her for taking care of the property. "That was in October. We passed Christmas and New Year's Eve, and then in early January, as soon as everyone went back to work, I got an eviction notice," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-01/nsw-no-grounds-evictions-…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Rent.NSW government announces the first of 44 government-owned sites that will be made available for new housing
Jesse Hyland ABC (No paywall)The NSW government has revealed the first new locations to be made available for affordable housing in the state, out of 44 government-owned sites that will be used to build new homes. The four locations include North Eveleigh and Camperdown in the inner city, Kellyville in Sydney's north west and Camden in the south west. Out of the sites announced, the Carriageworks Precinct near Redfern station in North Eveleigh will take up the lion's share of new housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-01/nsw-first-housing-sites-a…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing.