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
Refugees stuck in hotel rooms as Perth's rental crisis continues
Alicia Bridges ABC (No paywall)Some refugee families have been living in Perth hotels for more than six weeks as they struggle to find a home in an extremely competitive rental market, support workers say. The ABC understands about 40 families, mostly from Afghanistan, are living in hotel rooms in the city. A shortage of housing, inflated rental prices, prejudice among landlords and a lack of rental history are among the disadvantages faced by refugees seeking a place to call home, according to support workers. "There's an incredible amount of mental distress when people don't have safe, secure housing for themselves and for their families," Centre for Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Detainees acting general manager Esther Deng said. "If you don't have stable and secure housing – one of the basic needs that all of us in the community seek and require for our day-to-day existence – it is really hard to feel that you can settle in."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-07/refugees-stuck-in-hotel-r…
# Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market, Race and ethnicity.Airbnb’s Ukraine moment is a reminder of what the sharing economy can be
Daiane Scaraboto and Bernardo Figeiredo The Conversation (No paywall)As desirable vacation destinations go, war-torn Ukraine must surely rate low. But in the first month of Russia’s invasion, Airbnb bookings in Ukraine boomed, as people around the world used the accommodation platform to channel more than US$15 million in donations to the country. As with other forms of direct donation, using Airbnb to channel aid to Ukraine has been problematic. The company was relatively quick to waive the 20% commission it usually charges on transactions. But stopping scammers from setting up fake accounts to collect money from well-meaning donors has proven more difficult. t’s a story that illustrates both the potential and limitations of the so-called sharing economy.
https://theconversation.com/airbnbs-ukraine-moment-is-a-reminder…
# International, Short-term holiday letting.Australia's rental crisis
ABC (No paywall)Young people are struggling to find affordable rentals across the country. Finding a place to rent is a massive struggle right now. Only one per cent of rental properties across Australia are actually available, and tenants who saw some rent relief during the pandemic are now facing huge price hikes as things get back to normal. (tripleJ HACK)
# TUNSW in the media, Audio Australia, Rent, Homelessness, Housing affordability.How much do landlords really need to know about their tenants?
Jimmy Thomson (Paywall)How much do you want or – indeed – need to know about the prospective tenants of your property? Previous tenancies? Bankruptcies? Criminal records? How about them knowing their legal rights and whether they’ve asserted them, especially in strata schemes? The issues have been raised as credit check and data analysis company Equifax tries to wean property rental managers away from “manual” checks of references, employment and previous tenancies, saying they waste time and resources. Instead, it says, its National Tenancy Database can provide instant background screening on prospective tenants based on a deep dive of personal data similar to processes it uses for credit checks. ... Unsurprisingly, tenants’ advocates are less than impressed. Leo Patterson Ross, CEO of Tenants’ Union of NSW, says renters already have to provide too much information, the security of which can, generally speaking, be hit and miss. [He continues]: “The application process is effectively unregulated [and] there are no governing guidelines or principles given in the Residential Tenancies Act. The current non-transparent application process leaves many renters frustrated and feeling like they have had to turn over an excessive amount of personal information without really knowing how it will be used. This is especially so for the digital application processes." (Australian Financial Review)
https://www.afr.com/wealth/personal-finance/how-much-do-landlord…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Privacy and access, Rent, Landlords and agents.Indigenous sisters evicted from rental property following father's death
Kearyn Cox SBS (No paywall)Three vulnerable Noongar-Yamatji sisters have been left without a guardian or a place to live after a private real estate company evicted them from their property in Perth last week. The girls were left in a vacancy limbo when their father and sole guardian, Aubrey Roe, passed away a week after his first Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in October last year. (NITV)
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2022/04/04/indigenous-sister…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Eviction, Homelessness.Melbourne renters left scrambling as market recovers quickly
By Noel Towell and Thomas Bailey The Age (Paywall)Melbourne faces a fresh rental housing crisis as tenants find properties have dried up in some areas of the city. Both the real estate industry and tenants advocates are warning of a serious problem emerging after the supply of rentals, which peaked at more than 5.2 per cent during the pandemic, dropped to just 1.8 per cent across the city in March, according to the latest research by Domain.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-renters-le…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.Rooming house conversion in Carlton apartment block approved despite hundreds of objections
Cara Waters The Age (Paywall)A rooming house will be built inside an established apartment block in Carlton, in what the developer says will be the prototype for similar developments in other residential buildings. ... Melbourne City Council approved the development on Tuesday night despite more than 380 objections and fears from some residents the rooming house could attract drugs addicts and criminals. ... Dr Katrina Raynor, urban planning scholar at the University of Melbourne, said rooming houses were usually social housing or housing of last resort, but the College Square development appeared to have a very different target market. “We don’t really need more housing for professional people on high wages [though], we need more housing for students and people on low incomes,” she said.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/rooming-house-conver…
# Australia, Boarders and lodgers, Housing market, Students.Could a simple change to zoning laws solve Canberra's housing affordability crisis?
Markus Mannheim ABC (No paywall)Canberra is not quite a bustling metropolis. Yet its housing prices are what might be expected in far larger, denser cities. The median value of a house in the ACT is now above $1 million — more than in Melbourne. Rents in the bush capital are the highest of any Australian city, for both apartments and houses. The effects of this price boom on housing affordability are well known: many younger people are losing hope of owning property unless they inherit it. However, a potential solution exists — let's call it "the New Zealand fix" — that could leave almost everyone a winner. Yet it may be too radical for most Australian communities, let alone highly planned Canberra.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-08/can-radical-rezoning-solv…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Local Government, Planning and development.