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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
Church of England unveils plans to set up national housing association
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)The Church of England has confirmed plans to set up a national housing association with the aim to make the church a “major provider” of social housing across the country. ... Today’s announcement comes more than a year after a commission set up by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby published a report titles Coming Home: Tackling the Housing Crisis Together, which set out how the church could do more to help tackle the housing crisis. The report concluded that the Church of England must make more use of its land to deliver affordable housing. ... [But Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, the Church of England’s first Bishop for Housing] said: “This degree of social change – which we could think of as ‘levelling up’, rooted in the visions and values we derive from our faith – requires more land and buildings than we currently have, and it needs to be deliverable to every part of the country. If we only develop housing on the land we currently own, we’ll never bring about the justice we long to see, nor will it be enough to turn the tide of the current housing crisis.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/church-of-england-unve…
# International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market.Pregnant and terrified, Tailah is moving into a tent with her young family
Ella Archibald-Binge ABC (No paywall)Tailah Dippel sits on her front verandah, anxiously watching the rain clouds roll in. Rain is the last thing her family needs as they prepare to leave the warmth and comfort of their home. Their Bundaberg rental is being sold and for six months, Tailah and her partner Daniel have been looking for a new house for their family of five. Daniel earns a decent wage as a traffic controller and the pair thought they would have no trouble finding a three-bedroom home within their price range of $300 to $450 per week. But as time wore on, they became increasingly panicked. "Every single rental that is in our price range, we've been going for," says Tailah. ... They approached social housing providers but were ineligible due to Daniel's income. Even the caravan parks were full. The 25-year-old says her family's only remaining option is to move into a tent. ... A report released today by UNSW City Futures Research Centre found that social housing was being "rationed" and waitlist times had ballooned to more than a decade due to overwhelming demand and dwindling supply.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-26/bundaberg-rents-record-hi…
# Australia, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market.Embracing alternative housing ideas to house our ageing population
AHURI News AHURI (No paywall)With new housing supply highly unlikely to meet the needs of the 440,000 households aged 55 years projected to need affordable housing by 2031, Australia has to develop new ways of housing older people safely and securely. New AHURI research, ‘Alternative housing models for precariously housed older Australians’, is exploring the potential of alternative housing models to increase the supply of affordable housing for older Australians and the role alternative financing schemes could play in expanding those options. ... The models having the greatest potential to better meet people’s needs are: cohousing; integrated mixed-use developments; modular-style manufactured housing utilising vacant land; low-rise medium density development; reforms to the private rental sector to better protect older tenants. You will find the full report at: [https://www.ahuri.edu.au/sites/default/files/documents/2022-05/AHURI-Final-Report-378-Alternative-housing-models-for-precariously-housed-older-Australians.pdf]. In particular, flick down to the heading: '2.11 Tenant-friendly private rental' on pages 31 to 33.
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/news/embracing-alternative-hou…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing market, Older people.As temperatures go through the roof, are our homes fit for summer?
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)There are entire towns in Southern Europe that are whitewashed, age-old examples of using light-coloured materials to reflect heat rather than absorb it in a bid to keep homes cool. Yet on the same day the latest IPCC report issued a warning to the world that it was “now or never” to stave off climate disaster, the NSW government abandoned its plan to switch to light-coloured roofs, among a suite of other sustainability measures aimed at improving building standards in the state.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/as-temperatures-go-through-…
# NSW, Climate change, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.Will Albanese deliver relief in public housing?
Rachel Mealey ABC (No paywall)Anthony Albanese often speaks about his origins in public housing in Sydney's inner-west. He's taking the reins of government at a time when other Australian families are in the midst of a housing crisis, with few options in public or private housing. Will Mr Albanese's response to the crisis bring relief for those struggling now. (PM)
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/pm/will-albanese-deliver-r…
# Audio NSW, Public and community housing, Federal Government.Reserve Bank says property market buoyed as households downsized
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A sharp fall in the size of households, as people moved out of share houses or their parent’s homes, helped offset the effect of the collapse of immigration on the Australian housing market, the Reserve Bank believes. In a speech on the property market this morning, the bank’s assistant governor Luci Ellis also noted government programs – including the federal Coalition’s HomeBuilder subsidy – helped to push up prices while she also warned rents in Sydney and Melbourne may rise quicker than expected.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/reserve-bank-says-proper…
# Australia, Rent, Share houses, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Home ownership.Renters slugged with $150 extra in home energy bill costs per year
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Tenants spend more on energy bills than homeowners because rental properties are less efficient to heat and cool, a new study has found. And experts say the government should set minimum standards for rental properties and encourage landlords to invest in making their properties more energy efficient. Report author and head of the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University professor Paul Burke, said renters spent about 8 per cent more on electricity than similar households that were owner occupied. The research was published in the journal Energy Policy. ... Joel Dignam, executive director of tenancy group Better Renting, said the current rental crisis prevented tenants from demanding more and allowed landlords to provide the bare minimum. “Governments need to draw a line and make mandatory minimum requirements so people can pass winter in a rental home without their health being at risk,” he said.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/renters-slugged-with-150-ex…
# Australia, Rent, Health, Minimum habitability standards.Buy now, pay later schemes for Australian renters ‘prey on vulnerable’, financial counsellors warn
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)New buy now, pay later-style schemes targeting renters are “preying on the vulnerable”, say consumer advocates who have renewed calls for the federal government to overhaul credit laws to better regulate the sector. A recent entrant into the market, Tenanting, follows the model of buy now, pay later (BNPL) products such as Afterpay, which offer microloans for retail purchases that users can then pay back in four instalments. Tenanting advertises that it will pay rent on an individual’s behalf “instantly” with the user repaying it over four instalments with the addition of a 5% fee. Financial Counselling Australia (FCA) has taken aim at the company, calling it “yet another alarming example of a fintech company taking advantage of loopholes in the credit laws”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/04/buy-now-p…
# Australia, Rent.