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
Low-income tenants hardest hit as Australian rent rises outstrip assistance payments
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)Soaring rents have dramatically outstripped increases to the commonwealth rent assistance (CRA) payment, with house rentals in capital cities rising by an average of 13.8% over the last two years while rent assistance has risen by a maximum of 4.52%, leaving low-income renters hardest hit by the national rental crisis. The pressure in regional areas is even more severe, with rent increases of 20.2% across the board. Almost half of low-income renters now experience rental stress, spending more than 30% of their income on rent, even with government support. ... Leo Patterson Ross from the NSW Tenants Union said there were specific policy levers that could be pulled at a federal level that would materially benefit renters – especially through the NHHA – on issues like no-grounds eviction, as well as in separating financial incentives designed for owner-occupiers from those of investors who buy properties to rent for profit. “The federal government could say to the states: ‘You are running a tenancy legislation system that is exacerbating your homelessness crisis, you’re essentially wasting federal money. We need you to start running your business in a way that doesn’t make your problem worse, and if you want your federal funding, you need to come to the table’,” Patterson Ross said.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/27/low-incom…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Homelessness, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Welfare.Rental crisis ‘a blind spot’ for politicians in cost of living campaign
Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The rental crisis engulfing the country should be a wake-up call for both major parties as they fight the election campaign on cost of living issues, welfare support groups say, as data shows there are almost no affordable rentals across Australia. Anglicare’s rental affordability snapshot found less than 1 per cent of rentals were affordable for people on income support, while those on the minimum wage could afford just 2 per cent of available rentals across the country. ... Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) chief executive Dr Cassandra Goldie said the report’s findings were alarming. “[This] should be a wake-up call to the government and all parties and candidates this election,” she said. Also, read Stepnanie Convery's article entitled: '"Housing in Australia is broken": only 1.6% of private rentals are affordable for those on minimum wage.' in 'The Guardian' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/28/housing-in-australia-is-broken-only-16-of-private-rentals-are-affordable-for-those-on-minimum-wage]. Read Sezen Bakan's article entitled: 'Only seven rental properties are affordable for singles on JobSeeker' in 'The New Daily' at: [https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2022/04/28/rental-listings-crisis-jobseeker/]. You may view Anglicare's media release with links to both their National Report and Regional Report at: [https://www.anglicare.asn.au/2022/04/27/anglicare-australia-releases-rental-affordability-snapshot-all-parties-must-commit-to-affordable-housing/]
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rental-crisis-a-blind-sp…
# Australia, Rent, Affordable housing, Families, Housing affordability, Housing market, Welfare.‘There’s no escaping this crisis’: Queensland family of five struggle to find a stable rental
Caitlin Cassidy The Guardian (No paywall)Rebecca Brown had only just made it home from hospital with her newborn baby after a complicated birth, when she was given an eviction notice from their long-term rental in Queensland’s Lockyer Valley. Brown, her partner Nickolas, three-year-old daughter Octavia, one-year-old Taitum and baby Nashton endured 38 rejections before finding a property 60km away, in Walloon. Now, they’re facing the prospect of being forced out of home for a second time. “It doesn’t matter where you go,” Brown says. “There’s no escaping this rental crisis. It’s just everywhere.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/27/theres-no…
# Australia, Eviction, Rent, Families, Housing market, Personal stories.As rental crisis bites, Veronica knows what she’ll have to cut back on — food
Daniel Ziffer ABC (No paywall)Veronica Silva is being turfed out of the home she has rented for a decade. "It's just too hard. I'm crying myself to sleep most nights … it's just stress," the great-grandmother says. A hotel housekeeper for 40 years, Ms Silva says six of her neighbours are also being kicked out of their Gold Coast homes amid the expiry of a scheme giving landlords a subsidy for providing affordable rental housing. "I'm going to miss all these people that are around me," she laments. "They all have at one stage or another touched my life and made it better. And I've got to go and do that again. At 78 … I can't. ... The total number of properties available for rent in March 2022 was the lowest since August 2003, falling 4 per cent in March 2022 to be 24 per cent lower than a year earlier. In March there were fewer than 130,000 total rental listings available. That is a huge 24.9 per cent lower than the decade average, which was about 170,000. There are simply fewer homes for people to try to rent. You will find a link to this report at: [https://www.realestate.com.au/insights/proptrack-rental-report-march-2022-quarter/]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-28/housing-crisis-in-austral…
# Australia, Eviction, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing affordability, Housing market, Personal stories.'We’re not all terrible’: the landlords who keep rents low
Suzanne Bearne The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... When landlords hit the headlines it tends to be for the worst of reasons – what we don’t tend to hear are the stories of tenants who live in properties in good condition, where the owner quickly replaces the fridge when it breaks or organises for an electrician to fix the flickering light fitting. ... Lee Coates, an ethical money and environmental, social and corporate governance consultant, says there is nothing intrinsically unethical about being a landlord. “Those who cannot buy and need to rent need landlords to provide a property to rent,” he says. “How the landlord acts, however, is where ethics come in. We all know of instances where problems are not sorted and landlords do not meet even basic requirements – making an extra few pounds at the tenant’s expense. A landlord charging a fair rent and meeting their obligations, keeping the property in good condition, should be the norm.”
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/apr/23/were-not-all-terri…
# International, Rent, Landlords and agents, Personal stories.Majority of landlords report fall in rent arrears during pandemic, research finds
Stephen Delahunty Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Two-thirds of housing associations ended the pandemic with lower rent arrears than they had at the beginning despite the economic hardship facing tenants and the eviction ban, new research has found. A report based on 20 landlords, commissioned by PlaceShapers, WHG and the National Housing Federation (NHF), found the majority had reduced the rent debt owed to them over the course of the pandemic. Titled What happens when the rule book is taken away, the report argued that the cultural and legal changes brought on by lockdown restrictions meant associations had to transform how they worked with their tenants. The research set out to investigate how the 20 landlords, including Optivo, Sovereign and Stockport Homes, responded to the prospect of skyrocketing arrears as more tenants were forced into economic hardship. It also looked into how the pandemic-related eviction ban changed systems and processes overnight.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/majority-of-landlords-…
# Research alert International, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.The four economic wildcards waiting for us between now and the federal election
Peter Martin The Conversation (No paywall)The second wildcard: rising interest rates ... That's when the second election wildcard gets played: next Tuesday May 3, at 2.30pm AEST, after the Reserve Bank board's May meeting. If inflation is especially high, there's a chance the bank will announce it is pushing up rates, lifting its cash rate from its present all-time low of 0.10 per cent to 0.25 per cent or to 0.50 per cent, and holding an afternoon press conference to explain why. If fully passed on, an increase to 0.50 per cent would add an extra $100 to the monthly cost of paying off a $500,000 mortgage.
https://theconversation.com/there-are-4-economic-wildcards-betwe…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.No-fault evictions: 200,000 renters in England served notices in three years
Robert Booth and Jem Bartholomew The Guardian (No paywall)More than 200,000 private renters in England have been served eviction notices without doing anything wrong in the three years since the government first promised to ban the practice, housing campaigners have claimed. Every seven minutes, a tenant has been landed with a no-fault eviction notice since Theresa May’s Conservative government first committed to scrap them in April 2019, according to research by Shelter, the housing charity. Tenants have told of the shock, stress and thousands of pounds of unexpected bills caused by the practice, which means private renters can be evicted with two months’ notice and without the landlord giving a reason. Grainne Cuffe also writes on this issue for 'Inside Housing' at: [https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/private-renter-served-no-fault-eviction-notice-every-seven-minutes-new-research-finds-75194].
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/apr/26/200000-private-ren…
# Must read International, Eviction, Rent, No-grounds evictions.