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
Locked out of buying a home or even renting alone, these Canberra residents turned to options like share-housing, affordable rentals
Lottie Twyford , Monte Bovill, and Harry Frost ABC (No paywall)When the lease came to an end on the apartment Michi Moses shared with her husband two years ago, they decided to change up their approach to housing. Amid the rising cost of housing and the difficulty of securing a suitable apartment, the couple decided to pool resources with their friends, another married couple, and they all moved in together. It meant they could move into a quiet, well-established suburb and allow themselves more space. For their five-bedroom, four-bathroom house with a back garden in Canberra's Inner South, each couple is paying $500 a week in rent. Ms Moses said it's going "pretty well for the most part".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-25/act-budget-cost-of-living…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Share houses.Your cold house is bad for your mental health
Professor Rebecca Bentley University of Melbourne (No paywall)Right now, most Australians are feeling the cold, whether you live in wet Melbourne, blustery Tasmania or central Queensland, with its desert-chilled overnights. But each and every winter, the issue of our country’s cold housing gets national attention. Not only is living in a cold home unpleasant and uncomfortable, it also has the potential to impact our health. At the outset it’s important to get the science of the health effects of cold housing right. To do that, we need to look at our emerging understanding of the effects of living in a cold house – particularly on our mental health.
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/your-cold-house-is-bad-f…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas.The case for rent controls has never been greater
Dan Wilson Craw Left Foot Forward (No paywall)Renters have never faced such an enormous crisis. Since the end of the pandemic, more of us want to live in cities, and because of the lack of homes that have been built in recent decades, competition for those that are available is pushing up rents. Since March 2021, the average rent on a new tenancy in the UK has increased by 33%, while wages have increased by just 19%. Many of us who have tried finding a new place to live in the past couple of years have encountered horrendous exploitation at the hands of letting agents trying to wring every last drop of extra rent from the overheated market. Being asked to bid against other renters or offer multiple months’ rent up front is now commonplace. This wastes renters’ time and throws up barriers to those of us without savings.
https://leftfootforward.org/2024/06/the-case-for-rent-controls-h…
# Hot topic International, Rent.'Renting is very expensive' - NZ's global distinction
Susan Edmunds Radio NZ (No paywall)Wellington woman Cara has watched her rent climb steadily over the years, and says it is "by far" the biggest financial stress of her life. "Ten years ago, I paid $400 a week for a three-bedroom house in Johnsonville. Then three years ago I paid $650 for a much worse three-bedroom house in Karori. Now I pay $710 for a three-bedroom house in Whitby." The solo parent - whom RNZ has agreed not to name, says from time to time she has had to have flatmates to help share the rent. "A couple of years ago I was earning $75,000 a year and paying $650 a week in rent, which was roughly the average rent in Wellington, but I figured out that it was more than 50 percent of my income." As rents have pushed up in recent years on the back of high migration, New Zealand's rental market has achieved a record that tenants would rather not set, and global distinction the country would probably prefer not to achieve.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/520050/renting-is-very-expen…
# Must read International, Rent.Labour under pressure to be more radical about reforming private renting
Robert Booth The Guardian (No paywall)Labour is facing pressure to deliver more radical reforms of private renting amid fears landlords will find new ways to evict tenants despite the party confirming it would end no-fault evictions, ban bidding wars and introduce time limits to fix potentially lethal mould. In a campaign push aimed at the “rip-off private rented sector”, Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, claimed private renters would be £250-a-year better off under a Labour government after it forces landlords to improve the energy efficiency of leaky rental homes.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/19/labour-u…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Repairs, Utilities electricity water gas.No-cause evictions have the potential to hurt renters – with little gain for good landlords
Myra Williamson The Conversation (No paywall)Housing security for New Zealand’s 1.7 million renters could be threatened if the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill becomes law. Among some potentially positive changes in the amendment – such as the introduction of a pet bond – are rule changes that could cause real harm to renters. In particular, the proposed return of “no-cause” evictions is troubling. Landlords will be able to give a 90-day termination notice to end any periodic tenancy, at any time, without giving a reason. Currently, landlords can evict someone for being more than three weeks late with rent, when the owner wants to live in the house themselves, or wants an employee to live on the property, amongst other grounds.
https://theconversation.com/no-cause-evictions-have-the-potentia…
# Must read International, Eviction.How a disastrous Tory policy blew up the housing market
Oliver Wainwright The Guardian (No paywall)With a penthouse in Santa Monica, a rambling Georgian manor in North Yorkshire and a five-bedroom mews house in Kensington, Rishi Sunak knows a thing or two about the joys of home ownership. “I want everyone to feel what I felt when I got the keys to my first flat,” Sunak said in his recent televised debate with Keir Starmer, recalling the moment he stepped into his South Ken pied-à-terre for the first time. Launching his election manifesto, Sunak reiterated the Tory party’s eternal commitment to estate agents, house builders and the transformational power of bricks and mortar. “From Macmillan to Thatcher to today,” he declared, “it is we Conservatives who are the party of the property-owning democracy in this country.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2024/jun/21/h…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Election 'last chance to fix broken renting system' - as leaders urged to make 'serious policy offer'
Faye Brown Sky News (No paywall)The general election may be "the last chance" to fix the UK's "broken renting system", housing organisations have warned as they called on party leaders to come up with bolder solutions to the crisis. In an open letter to Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer, groups representing tenants said thousands more people "face homelessness, poverty and exploitation" unless a "serious policy offer" is put on the table. It comes as one renter told Sky News how he has been priced out of his home following a 40% increase in rent - despite the flat having "an excessive mould issue". The groups, including the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and Generation Rent, want all party leaders to commit to rent controls, a full ban on no-fault evictions and greater investment in social housing.
https://news.sky.com/story/election-last-chance-to-fix-broken-re…
# Must read International, Eviction, Rent.