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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Low vacancy rates mean rental crisis will last
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The rental crisis is growing, with the cost of renting a capital city house soaring about 15 per cent over the past 12 months, with the cost of renting a unit jumping about 13 per cent. Data from SQM Research also show the rental vacancy rate in Sydney remained at 1.6 per cent in April, unchanged from March. It exceeded 3 per cent in April a year earlier.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/low-vacancy-…
# NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market, Regional NSW.Five years on, Grenfell’s shadow falls on every unsafe building
Stephen Brell The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)On the fifth anniversary of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire that claimed the lives of 72 Londoners, the topic of flammable cladding and building defects in general remains high on the building agenda here in Australia. The NSW Cladding Taskforce has named approximately 225 high-risk residential apartment buildings. Parramatta alone has more than 170 high-rise buildings with non-compliant combustible cladding.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/five-years-on-grenfell-s-shadow-…
# NSW, Strata, Asbestos, lead, hazardous materials, International, Minimum habitability standards.Grenfell’s wake: Perth unit owners forced to pay $1m for cladding as builders fold
Sarah Brookes The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It was a high rise death trap and a building industry failure that cost 72 people their lives. On June 14, 2017 a fire started on the fourth floor of the Grenfell Tower in London where 300 residents lived. Within minutes, the fire had raced up the exterior of the building. ... Five years on from the tragedy, Building and Energy’s March quarterly status update for private buildings shows that cladding remedial works are yet to start at nine Perth buildings, including two deemed high risk. ... Eric Soon lives in the Sundance by Psaros apartment complex in Scarborough which recently replaced the combustible cladding at a cost of nearly $1 million, borne by individual apartment owners. Sarah Brookes also writes about combustible cladding still present at Perth hospitals, unis and schools in the same paper at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/combustible-cladding-still-present-at-perth-hospitals-unis-and-schools-20220612-p5at4x.html]
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/five-years-aft…
# Australia, Strata, Asbestos, lead, hazardous materials, State Government.Aussie home values are about to tumble. We should let them
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)You have probably heard the news that national home values are forecast to fall about 15 per cent over the coming 18 months. That’s the prediction of the economists at the nation’s biggest bank, Commonwealth Bank, anyway. Sydney and Melbourne are tipped to bear the brunt of price falls. If you’re a home owner, you’d probably greet this news with some degree of trepidation. If you’re an aspiring first-time buyer, excitement, perhaps. ... Housing market adjustments hurt. But in the long run, it’s better that home values do give back some of their super-sized gains of recent years. Every Australian deserves the chance to own a home, and falling prices give younger buyers a fighting chance. Let them have it.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/aussie-home-values-a…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Young people.Freezing indoors? That’s because Australian homes are closer to tents than insulated eco-buildings
Philip Oldfield The Guardian (No paywall)As winter sets in, and temperatures plummet, it can sometimes feel as cold inside as it does outside. The reason for this is the poor thermal performance of houses in Australia. Our homes need to be rapidly improved to combat climate change, tackle energy poverty and improve our everyday lives. Minimum building standards for energy and comfort in Australian houses lag far behind many regions.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/13/freezing-i…
# Australia, Climate change, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Tony and Diane got flood insurance just before their home was inundated, but were too late
Michael Atkin ABC (No paywall)Tony Faulks and his wife Diane Carpenter are struggling to get through winter in their flood-ravaged Brisbane home. To escape the mould, they've set up a makeshift living room and kitchen in their garage. "It's like camping, to be honest, but we don't have a choice, we have nowhere else to live," Mr Faulks said. "It's getting cold. It's really cold," Ms Carpenter added. ... [But] Suncorp said it had denied Mr Faulks's insurance claim because the flood damage happened within 72 hours of him buying the policy. ... The couple is now faced with the confronting situation of fixing the damage on their own.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-13/flood-insurance-premiums-…
# Australia, .Evictions are life-altering — and preventable
Rachel M Cohen (No paywall)When Susan Brewer’s wife lost her job during the pandemic, her family, living on the South Side of Chicago, fell behind on rent. Brewer had been supplementing her wife’s salary with the disability income she received from Social Security, but on its own it wasn’t enough to pay their bills. In December 2021, Chicago opened up a new round of applications for renters needing emergency aid. But Brewer’s landlord — who was then threatening them with eviction —wasn’t interested. Normally, that would have been the end of it: If a landlord refuses to participate in a government program, their tenants won’t get help. But in this case, Brewer was able to apply for and receive the money directly. She picked up her check from City Hall, paid off all her outstanding rental debt, and her wife eventually got her job back. ... Pandemic rental assistance upended conventional wisdom on housing. What happens when it runs out? (Vox)
https://www.vox.com/23140987/evictions-housing-rent-assistance-e…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Local Government.Social housing solutions in East Albury create tension with residents
Katherine Smyrk ABC (No paywall)In East Albury, on the corner of East and Alexandra streets, there are five old houses with boarded-up windows, the grass growing long, graffiti on the fences, and rubbish on the front steps. he lots were social housing but have since been vacated. They were at the top of the agenda in a new agreement between Albury City Council and the NSW government's Land and Housing Council.The agreement aims for the council to deliver 540 new public dwellings and 700 dwellings for the private market by 2032. ... Not everyone in the community is happy about the proposed development. There were clusters of very unhappy residents at a drop-in information session in East Albury this week. The phrase "antisocial behaviour" was heard multiple times in the small meeting room at the Albury PCYC. ... Mercy Connect's Trent Dean said. "I think of the acronym NIMBY, or Not In My Backyard" [and he] was concerned about some of the "divisive" language that can come up when debates about social housing start in the community.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-16/social-housing-solutions-…
# NSW, Public and community housing.