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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Homeless and looking for help – why people with disability and their carers fare worse after floods
Jodie Baille, Jo Longman, Michelle Villeneuve and Ross Baille The Conversation (No paywall)Thousands of people have been displaced from the floods in New South Wales and Queensland. Across the Northern Rivers, the floods have damaged at least 5,500 homes, with at least half of these expected to be uninhabitable. Floods expose social inequities and exacerbate the housing crisis for people with disability and carers in the region.
https://theconversation.com/homeless-and-looking-for-help-why-pe…
# NSW, Disability, Housing market, Regional NSW.After the floods, the distressing but necessary case for managed retreat
Antonia Settle The Conversation (No paywall)From Brisbane to Sydney, many thousands of Australians have been reliving a devastating experience they hoped – in 2021, 2020, 2017, 2015, 2013, 2012 or 2010/11 – would never happen to them again. For some suburbs built on the flood plains of the Nepean River in western Sydney, for example, these floods are their third in two years. Flooding is a part of life in parts of Australia. But as climate change intensifies the frequency and severity of floods, fires and other disasters, and recovery costs soar, two big questions arise. As a society, should we be setting up individuals and families for ruin by allowing them to build back in areas where they can’t afford insurance? And is it fair for taxpayers to carry the huge burden of paying for future rescue and relief costs?
https://theconversation.com/after-the-floods-the-distressing-but…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.‘A disaster waiting to happen’: Residents raised concerns about boarding house before deadly blaze
Megan Gorrey, Josh Dye and Sarah Keoghan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Residents who survived a suspicious boarding house fire that killed three people in Sydney’s inner west say they heard an explosion that resembled a bomb going off before they were forced to flee through thick smoke. ... Residents say they had complained to the building’s owner about poor living conditions at the boarding house. You will find an update to this report at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/man-charged-with-three-counts-of-murder-over-newtown-boarding-house-fire-20220316-p5a505.html] And, here's a report in 'The Guardian'. Go to: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/16/man-charged-with-after-three-die-in-sydney-boarding-house-fire]
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/a-disaster-waiting-to-happen…
# NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Rent, Homelessness.Vacancies hit 16-year low in ‘rental crisis’
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)National residential property rental vacancy rates slid to just 1.2 per cent in February – the lowest since April 2006. The tight market has seen rents soar as much as 10 per cent, further hitting household budgets at a time when other non-discretionary spending on things such as petrol and food are surging. Sydney’s vacancy rate last month was 2 per cent and 2.3 per cent in Melbourne, figures from SQM Research show. Vacancies in regional rental markets are even worse. ... Renters in regional centres in NSW are faring even worse. The vacancy rates in Wollongong and the Central Coast were just 0.6 per cent. In Newcastle, it was 1 per cent.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/vacancies-hi…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Regional NSW.Sydney, Melbourne among top five least affordable cities in the world to buy a home
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Australia’s house prices are among the least affordable across the globe, with new data revealing Sydney and Melbourne sit in the top five least affordable cities for local home buyers. Demographia’s International Housing Affordability 2022 Edition revealed Sydney was the second least affordable city to buy a house, with the median price 15 times more than the average household income in 2021. The harbour city was beaten only by Hong Kong, where house prices are 23 times the household income. Melbourne came in as the fifth least affordable city, with the median house price now 12 times the average household income. Other Australian capitals were also considered “severely unaffordable”, as they had house prices more than five times average incomes.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/sydney-melbourne-among-top-…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.‘He wants to give it to someone else’: rent rises leaving a toll on regional NSW
Michael McGowan and Josh Nicholas The Guardian (No paywall)In July last year, Anna’s real estate agent called to say that her landlord had decided to sell the house in Bega, in the state’s south, where she and her partner had lived for the past two years. ... Leo Patterson Ross, the chief executive of the Tenants’ Union of NSW, said he had seen a massive increase in the number of evictions like Anna's during the pandemic, due to what he called the “waves of displacement” caused by rising rents in regional parts of the state. “We saw a doubling of people calling about no grounds evictions in the regional areas because people are being pushed out to make way for the flow of people moving out of the cities,” he said. ... After they lost their Bega property, Anna and her partner were unable to find a new home for months, and lived in a tent for two months as they searched for somewhere to live. In the end, they were forced to head further south, to Pambula, to find a property.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/17/he-wants-…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Rent, Housing market, No-grounds evictions, Regional NSW.‘Intense flames’: One dead, multiple unaccounted for following Newtown boarding house fire
Sarah Keoghan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)One person is dead and multiple are unaccounted for following a boarding house fire in Sydney’s inner west on Tuesday morning. About 1am, firefighters were called to a two-level boarding house on Probert St in Newtown after reports it was alight. Upon arrival, a number of residents had self-evacuated. However, multiple people remained unaccounted for. You will find another report on this fire on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-15/fatal-newtown-boarding-house-fire/100909928] And, there's further updates on the ABC's report at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-16/newtown-fire-police-investigate-suspicious-blaze/100912718] and [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-16/newtown-fire-police-investigate-suspicious-blaze/100912718]
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/intense-flames-one-dead-mult…
# NSW, Boarders and lodgers.How living near Sydney’s green spaces makes you healthier and happier
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)If you live somewhere in Sydney that has access to parks, trees, fresh air, good food and walkable streets, it’s odds on that you’ll be healthier, fitter and will live to a grand old age. If, however, you’re trapped somewhere with little greenery, lots of pollution and have to hop in a car and fight traffic jams to get anywhere you want to go, then, sorry, but precisely the opposite is likely to be true.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/how-living-near-sydney-s-gr…
# NSW, Health, Housing market, Planning and development.