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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
ATO cracking down on dodgy holiday let claims
JimmyThomson (No paywall)Danger, danger, holiday letting hosts! If you have been fudging the figures on your tax claims for your holiday home investments, the Australian Tax Office is coming after you.
Actually, the ATO has been issuing this warning almost every year since 2015, if not before. ... and now they have a raft of technology to help them track down the dodgers and fudgers. Not least among them is the NSW register of holiday lets as well as online letting platforms such as Airbnb and Stayz which list when the property is available. (Flat Chat)
Why are one in four Sydney homes being pulled from auction?
Kate Burke and Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)One in four Sydney home sellers are ditching plans to take their property to auction, as interest rate rises reduce buyer demand and put downward pressure on prices and the auction clearance rate. Sellers have increasingly abandoned auction plans amid the cooling property market, fearing they will not have enough buyer competition if they proceed, industry experts report. Most are converting to a private sale campaign, though some are postponing their auction, and others are withdrawing from the market altogether.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/why-are-one-in-four-sydney-…
# NSW, Housing market, Sydney.Extreme heat around the world in videos, photos and graphics
Matt Fidler, Maheen Sadiq and Glenn Swann The Guardian (No paywall)From wildfires to glacier collapses, a flurry of extreme heat events has led to deaths and disrupted lives since the start of July.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/14/extreme-heat…
# Must read International, Climate change.Metropolis meltdown: the urgent steps we need to take to cool our sweltering cities
Oliver Wainwright The Guardian (No paywall)All over the world, temperatures in urban areas are rocketing. ... As Rachel Harris of the Architects Climate Action Network argues, the future will not be about hi-tech, mechanical solutions, but getting the basics right, learning from vernacular techniques that have been tried and tested for centuries. “If orientation, shading and air flow are done right,” she says, “we should be able to keep people comfortable, even in increasingly extreme climates – without the need to reach for the aircon switch.”
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jul/14/climate-cri…
# International, Climate change, Fixtures - lights, aircon etc, Housing market, Planning and development.Australian homes are so cold that some are falling below the WHO's recommended 'safe' temperature
Max Chalmers ABC (No paywall)In Amity and Mickie's rental home in Sydney, there's a room connected to the main living space by a doorway that has no door. A note stuck to the wall reveals the family's pet name for this room: "Antarctica". "It's got a ceiling that's just plastic sheeting and no insulation," Mickie tells ABC RN Breakfast. "It's absolutely freezing." ... Despite this, the family hasn't asked for any changes to the property to fix the problem because they don't want to put their landlord offside and risk eviction. ... But they are taking part in a national project, run by community organisation Better Renting, which is investigating just how cold Australian homes get. Their rental is one of 70 sites that has been monitored through winter for about seven weeks. The project organisers gave the renters temperature monitoring devices to test how often their homes were below 18 degrees Celsius. This is the recommendation set by the World Health Organization for a "safe and well-balanced" indoor temperature for a home during winter. Results so far are concerning. (Radio National) Also, read Elissa Goldstein's article entitled: 'These DIY window insulation tips will keep the cold air out of your house this winter' on ABC Everyday at: [https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/diy-window-insulation-tips-draught-proofing-winter-cold-house/101173968] Read Robert Nelson's article entitled: 'Heat yourself, not your house: how to survive winter with a 15℃ indoor temperature/ in 'The Conversation' at: [https://theconversation.com/heat-yourself-not-your-house-how-to-survive-winter-with-a-15-indoor-temperature-185587]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-15/why-are-australian-homes-…
# NSW, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas, Minimum habitability standards.The hell or high water women of Elsie
ABC (No paywall)In 1974, armed only with shovels and broomsticks, Anne Summers and two other women broke into a pair of vacant houses in the inner Sydney suburb of Glebe. Their intentions were altruistic. They turned the houses into ‘Elsie’, Australia's first shelter for women and children fleeing from domestic violence. (ABC Nightlife)
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/nightlife/anne-summers/139…
# History, Audio NSW, Domestic violence, Homelessness, Women.‘There’s real powerlessness’: Australian renters at the mercy of no-cause evictions
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)It was a tradesperson attending the house for another job who first alerted Natalie to the fact the wooden front stairway of her rental, a decaying Queenslander in an inner Brisbane suburb, was coming away from the wall. “The thing was cracking and breaking away,” Natalie says. “We alerted the real estate agent, and they came and wrapped warning tape around the stairs and told us not to use them. They said they’d fix it straight away.” Then the merry-go-round began. Tradespeople would turn up, assess the damage and send an email to the real estate agent, but no one ever came to fix anything. ... In November, she sent the agent an email. “I said, if you don’t give me a timeline to fix this within the next two weeks, we’ll issue a notice to remedy breach. Then six days later they sent us an eviction notice.” Natalie and the rest of her household were issued with a “no-grounds” termination – a form of eviction in which the landlord does not need to provide a reason for ending a lease. ... [Joel Dignam, executive director of the advocacy organisation Better Renting] says it’s the threat of eviction as much as the reality that causes much of the harm to renters. “That causes tenants to hold back, self-sensor and limit self-advocacy. That’s our big concern – that landlords can wield that power, even if they don’t put the eviction into effect.” Better Renting and other tenants’ advocacy groups argue the no-grounds eviction – and the end-of-lease evictions that function in the same way – ought to be abolished. “The power imbalance is that the renter is the party in the relationship whose home is at stake,” says Dignam.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/16/theres-re…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, No-grounds evictions.‘No time for politics’: Housing ministers to meet to tackle affordability and homelessness
Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)The country’s housing ministers are meeting for the first time in five years on Friday, against a backdrop of high property prices, skyrocketing rental rates and rising interest rates. Housing and Homelessness Minister Julie Collins said she convened the summit so the federal and state governments can start working together to address the widespread housing challenges. ... The housing ministers will also start work on creating a national housing and homelessness plan, and Collins said having input from community housing organisations and private providers will also be important.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/no-time-for-politics-hou…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing affordability, State Government.