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
'Extremely challenging’: Sydney house rents jump 19 per cent since pandemic began
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Sydney tenants are facing the highest house rents on record and unit rents are set to reach fresh highs by the spring, new figures show, as experts warn of more housing stress. The median weekly asking rent for houses jumped $20 a week, or 3.3 per cent to $620 in the June quarter – a record, the latest Domain Rent Report, released on Thursday, showed. ... Sydney’s rental market has reached this new extreme due to a combination of the limited supply of homes to choose from as the city’s vacancy rate remains at a record low of 1 per cent and some investors sell, plus demand from priced-out buyers, interest from international students and returning migrants filtering back into the market, as well as new households forming that prefer single living rather than share housing during the pandemic. ... Tenants’ Union of NSW chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said Sydney still had a fundamentally undersupplied rental market that had never improved in real terms during the pandemic. “The falling rents [during the pandemic] were largely because people were falling into economic crisis. It wasn’t because of an abundance of genuine affordable housing coming online. It was because of people losing their jobs,” Patterson Ross said. The ongoing lack of official rental relief measures at a time Sydney was facing its fourth COVID wave, wage stagnation and economic uncertainty would cause renters hardship in coming months, Patterson Ross said.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/extremely-challenging-sydne…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing affordability, Housing market, International.Councils evict over 2,500 families for being unable to pay rent during pandemic
Sam Barker (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Councils evicted more than 2,500 households over the last three years for not paying rent - including many during the financial pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic. More than 2,575 households have been evicted from social housing this way since 2019, according to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted by The Mirror. The council that evicted the most households for not paying enough rent in a single year was Sheffield City Council, with 140 evictions in the 2019/20 year. These FOI requests covered 154 councils representing all major cities and towns across the UK. But the true eviction figure will be even higher, as 38 councils never responded and smaller councils were not included. (Mirror)
https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/councils-evict-over-2500-families…
# International, Eviction, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Homelessness, Housing market, Local Government.July 2022 News
Shelter NSW (No paywall)In this month's edition:
NSW budget – Renters ticketless in state housing lottery
NCOSS Post-budget Breakfast
First home buyer support – be careful what you wish for
Parliamentary Inquiry into Homelessness amongst older people
NAIDOC Week - Get Up! Stand up! Show up!
Renting – it’s not just a phase we’re going through
Blue Mountains Housing Summit
The lights are off – is anybody home?
Kirsten Steedman represents Shelter NSW at Economic Business Educators (EBE) annual conference
Washing Machine Replacement Trial
https://mailchi.mp/shelternsw/shelter-nsw-july-2022-ebulletin?e=…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas, Campaigns and law reform, Home ownership, Homelessness.Tenants claim they face eviction for complaining 'too much'
Nat Wallace 9 News (No paywall)"They complain too much." You'll never hear a real estate agent say it publicly but let's be honest, of course it's happening, especially in the current rental market. A Baulkham Hills family claims it is the victim of what's called a "retaliatory eviction" after $17,000 worth of repairs were required in their rental home. "The reason they want us out is we have apparently complained too much, but as you can see there's a hell of a lot to complain about," Michelle Cowley told A Current Affair. ... CEO of the Tenants' Union, Leo Patterson Ross, has long campaigned for stronger laws to make real estate agents provide a reason for not renewing a lease. He said the rental market is currently under so much stress it's "made for landlords" and it doesn't pay to complain. (A Current Affair)
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/sydney-tenants-speak-o…
# TUNSW in the media, Video NSW, Rent, Repairs, Landlords and agents, No-grounds evictions.Home – a Waterloo South tenant responds to LAHC plans
Norrie (No paywall)When I go for a walk around my neighbourhood in the south part of Waterloo public housing estate, I see blue sky and green trees and grass and bushes. I see gardens that people have made around their homes. The people I see have lived here for a long time, unlike private rentals where people come and go. But the state LNP government has plans to knock all our homes down, and, in its first draft, replace them with buildings higher than the aeroplanes fly.
https://southsydneyherald.com.au/home-a-waterloo-south-tenant-re…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Estate renewal, State Government.Homes of last resort: the pods housing a NSW community ravaged by floods
Susan Chenery The Guardian (No paywall)Gordon Richards is still a bit teary. The night the 83-year-old moved into his pod at the Wollongbar Community Village, in the New South Wales northern rivers, was the best night’s sleep he had since he waded out of his South Lismore house in February.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/11/homes-of-…
# NSW, Homelessness.It was an unprecedented housing crisis that called for an urgent summit, now four years on, it's worse
Alexandra Humphries ABC (No paywall)In 2018, Hobart's showground was at the centre of Tasmania's housing crisis, as people with nowhere else to turn set up camp across the site. ... Fast-forward to 2022, and Mr Gadd believes the situation has worsened. ... Pattie Chugg from Shelter Tasmania, the peak body for housing and homelessness, believes the situation now is quite different to what it was in 2018, due to factors such as population growth, a tight private rental market, the impact of short-stay accommodation, and rising house prices. And, it is being felt right across the state. "It was a stressed market, but now it's super stressed," Ms Chugg said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-12/housing-meeting-crisis-ta…
# Australia, Homelessness, Housing market.The Guardian view on the Grenfell inquiry: a slow march to culpability
Editorial The Guardian (No paywall)In less than two weeks’ time, the final phase of evidence at the Grenfell inquiry will end. These hearings are about how each of the fire’s 72 victims died. ... There is no doubt about the extraordinary quantity of information that the inquiry has placed in the public domain. The question is where all this will lead; whether those people and organisations who bear greatest responsibility will pay any price, beyond the private remorse that several have described, and whether ministers will take steps to ensure such a tragedy is never repeated.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/10/the-guardi…
# International, Minimum habitability standards.