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
‘It ruined me’: No turning back to damp musty homes
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Growing up in a damp and draughty housing, builder Adam Souter suffered severe asthma attacks. A generation later, when his young son developed asthma, too, he realised that poorly ventilated Australian homes where mould and bacteria flourished were making his family sicker. Now, a healthy extension called Pepper Tree next to Souter’s 1981 brick veneer Wollongong home, by architect Alexander Symes, is one of two “passive house” projects on the shortlist of the 2022 NSW Architecture Awards’ sustainable category.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/it-ruined-me-no-turning-back-to-…
# Australia, Health, Home, Housing market, Mould.My fantasy of ageing in a share house is dead – my friends now joke darkly about living together in cars
Deirrdre Fidge The Guardian (No paywall)As property prices and costs of living climb, I am having more of these black conversations about how and where to live as we age.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/17/my-fantasy…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people.‘A very major correction’ under way as building industry faces crisis
Josh Gordon, Jackson Graham, Tawar Razaghi and Elizabeth Redman The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Australia’s construction sector is bracing for a major slump over the next year as builders struggle with surging costs for raw materials, worker shortages, supply chain delays and looming interest rate rises.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-very-major-correction-under-wa…
# Australia, Housing market.Vacancies Nudge Higher but Rental Market Still Tight
Phil Bartsch (No paywall)New data shows a small light has flickered on at the end of Australia’s national rental crisis tunnel. At least, that’s the cautiously optimistic view. According to the latest report from SQM Research, the national residential property rental vacancy rate edged fractionally higher in April—rising to 1.1 per cent. Marginally above the 1 per cent vacancy rate recorded in March, it is the first increase this year. (The Urban Developer)
https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/vacancies-nudge-highe…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.Rental crisis caused by short-stay businesses leaving NSW tenants evicted and homeless
Joanna Woodburn ABC (No paywall)Nick Crowley and his dog Barney have become good at packing up their worldly belongings and moving. As a renter at Orange in central west New South Wales, he has had to do it twice in just over a year because the owners wanted to lease the homes to companies to charge higher rent. "If they're getting offered double the amount to rent, then they'd be mad not to take it, but from my perspective it was a bit of a bugger," Mr Crowley said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-19/rental-crisis-nsw-tenants…
# NSW, Eviction, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Regional NSW, Short-term holiday letting.Winter appeal handing out tents, blankets, as regional homeless crisis grows
Charmayne Allison ABC (No paywall)A regional Victorian winter blanket appeal is seeking and handing out tents as well as blankets this year as the region's homelessness numbers reach crisis point. ... Uniting Wodonga and ABC Goulburn Murray have launched their Winter Blanket Appeal, which supports those in need across north-east Victoria. There's a desperate need for tents as more people struggle to afford rentals and motel rooms
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-21/winter-appeal-hands-out-t…
# Australia, Homelessness, Housing market.No-fault eviction court proceedings up 41% on pre-pandemic levels
(No paywall)From England ... The number of renters facing eviction continues to soar after the eviction ban put in place to keep renters safe in their homes during the pandemic was lifted. New figures show that:
* 18,626 eviction claims were made to court by landlords between January and March 2022, up by 32% on the previous quarter.
* Of these, 5,890 were no-fault eviction claims, which were up by 63% on the previous quarter and 41% higher than the same period in 2020.
* Claims for eviction for other reasons by private landlords also increased, totalling 6,316 claims in the first quarter of 2022 – up by 11% on the same period in 2020.
(Shelter)
https://england.shelter.org.uk/media/press_release/no-fault_evic…
# International, Eviction, Rent, No-grounds evictions.Zoom doom: Share-house hunting in Melbourne is not what it should be
Carla Jaeger The Age (Paywall)Like many twenty-something renters, moving houses forms part of my yearly calendar. At the end of this month, I’ll be out of my beloved share house. Dreading the arduous lease-application process, I decided to move into a house with people I didn’t know. What a spontaneous and fun thing to do, I thought in my naivety. Oh, how wrong I was.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/zoom-doom-share-hous…
# Australia, Share houses.