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
Netherlands' cardboard floating homes, Wikkelboats, could be a housing solution for areas with limited space
ABC (No paywall)Small floating houses made out of cardboard might not be everyone's cup of tea, but they are being considered as a housing solution in the Netherlands' unused harbours. Wikkelboats — or "wrap boats" in English — used for short-term accommodation are an original addition to the Rotterdam landscape, 73 kilometres to the south-east of the country's capital, Amsterdam. The floating houses are made of 1.2-metre-long cardboard segments weighing 500 kilograms each.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-21/netherlands-cardboard-flo…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.Inquiry into homelessness for older Australians faces confronting submissions
Erin Modaro (No paywall)A rising rate of senior Australians experiencing homelessness has triggered a parliamentary inquiry into a housing crisis in NSW for those over 55. With the inquiry going ahead this week, a committee has heard a multitude of stories from older Australian’s who have faced insecure housing. ... CEO of TUNSW Leo Patterson Ross spoke on a panel at the inquiry in parliament, providing suggestions for interventions to give older Australians access to stable housing. The suggested interventions include the development of genuinely affordable housing, reforming NSW tenancy law to ensure greater stability and security for people who rent their homes, and providing adequate support for older people who are renters. “These interventions are not fancy, nor particularly complicated. They simply require the political will to implement” Patterson Ross said. (City Hub)
https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2022/07/nsw-inquiry-into-homelessne…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, No-grounds evictions, Older people.Give councils cash to help bring down housing prices: think tank
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Local councils would get money directly from the federal government as a reward for approving more and higher-density housing under a proposal to help poorer and younger Australians get a foothold in the property market. Centre for Independent Studies chief economist Peter Tulip said turning the federal government’s controversial Urban Congestion Fund into a program to financially support councils dealing with increasing population densities would be one way to take pressure off housing prices in major cities.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/give-councils-cash-to-he…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development.Woman who died sleeping rough in Adelaide parklands not found for three weeks
Royce Kurmelovs The Guardian (No paywall)The body of a woman who died while sleeping rough in the Adelaide parklands was not found for three weeks. The 48-year-old woman, discovered by a man who knew her, was found in a tent in the eastern end of the parklands along South Terrace at 2pm on 22 May. ... The woman’s death is considered to be the twelfth death of a person sleeping rough this year known by the Toward Home Alliance, a group of services headed by Lutheran Care charged with running outreach programs to those sleeping rough around Adelaide.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/23/woman-who…
# Australia, Homelessness, Women.Foreign investor crackdown to deliver $455 million windfall – but not without costs
Matthew Elmas The New Daily (No paywall)Fees paid by foreign investors will double under a new federal government effort to ease Australia’s housing crisis, but experts warned the benefits would be marginal and come with costs. Treasurer Jim Chalmers unveiled a $455 million crackdown on foreign investors on Friday, saying the funds would help deliver Labor’s housing agenda. “Tackling housing affordability and helping more Australians into home ownership is a significant challenge and it’s one this government takes seriously,” Mr Chalmers said in a joint release with housing minister Julie Collins.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2022/07/22/foreign-i…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax.Housing crisis prompts NSW councils to appeal to investment property owners to switch to long-term leasing
Jessica Clifford and Melinda James ABC (No paywall)A New South Wales mayor will ask holiday rental house owners to consider leasing to permanent tenants in a bid to address the housing crisis. Shoalhaven Mayor Amanda Findley's move follows the success of the same tactic in the neighbouring Eurobodalla Shire, where 50 home owners have agreed to switch to long-term leasing. Ms Findley said domestic tourism had slowed down in the region because people were choosing to holiday overseas again. She said the shift was likely to have left some investment home owners without a stable income.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-22/housing-crisis-sparks-app…
# NSW, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Local Government, Short-term holiday letting.‘Unnecessary delay’ to rent reforms puts tenants in Wales at risk, says electrical safety charity
Stephen Delahunty Inside Housing (Paywall)A Welsh consumer protection charity has warned that the delay to implementing the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 leaves private renters at risk from dangerous electrics until at least the end of the year. The act, which the government previously branded the “biggest change to housing law in Wales for decades”, has been delayed until 1 December, in part because social landlords requested it. But Electrical Safety First said the delay places tenants in “unnecessary risk” and has urged the Welsh government to press ahead with the act’s implementation. It has taken the Welsh government six years to implement the act, which was passed in 2016. It includes a number of significant changes to rental law in Wales, such as a strengthened duty on landlords to ensure the properties they rent out are fit for human habitation. This will require the installation of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and regular electrical safety testing. The act also increases the notice period that landlords must give when issuing ‘no-fault’ evictions from two to six months.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/unnecessary-delay-to-r…
# International, Public and community housing, Repairs, Landlords and agents, Minimum habitability standards, No-grounds evictions.Owners battle illegal lets and crippling contracts
Jimmy Thomson (No paywall)Queensland apartment owners are ramping up their battles to regain control over their homes on two fronts. One aspect is the fundamentally immoral (but entirely legal) practise of developers selling management rights contracts to caretakers for up to 25 years – meaning owners have no choice in who manages their buildings, or to whom those contracts can be later sold on. The other is state and local governments’ repeated and systemic failure to enforce their own planning regulations which were intended to offer owners a choice between living in blocks with holiday lets and those without. (Flat Chat)
# Australia, Strata, Short-term holiday letting.