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
Time we stopped 'eviction dependency' argues new report
Cassie McCullagh ABC (No paywall)Australia is fast becoming one of the last few OECD countries where landlords can evict tenants without saying why. A brand new report from the NSW Tenants Union argues it is high time we did away with it and replaced with a more sensible approach. The new report also tries to estimate the personal and social costs of eviction.
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/sydney/programs/mornings/eviction/1…
# TUNSW in the media, Audio NSW, Eviction, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Personal stories.RSPCA calls for leniency as rental squeeze increases pet surrenders
Kimberley Bernard and Tara Cassidy ABC (No paywall)A quarter of pets surrendered on the Gold Coast this year have been casualties of the tight rental market, according to the Animal Welfare League Queensland (AWLQ). ... More people are citing accommodation stress as a reason to surrender their animals, according to the AWLQ. The RSPCA has called for more leniency from landlords, as the organisation records an increase of animals needing to be rehomed. Gold Coast woman Kim Calkin is weeks away from being evicted from her Coomera home with her two young children and dog. She says of the limited places around, few owners were willing to accept pets, so she is preparing to live from the family's car and trailer.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-13/surrender-numbers-increas…
# Australia, Discrimination, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Pets.NSW students sleeping in cars amid critical rental, accommodation shortage
Fatima Olumee and Nick Rheinberger ABC (No paywall)For the past couple of weeks Maddison Murray has been sleeping in her car. The newly enrolled 20-year-old student has moved from Adelaide to study at the University of Wollongong and has just two weeks to find a home before the semester begins. "I've been searching since mid-December, and it's been quite overwhelming," she said. Before sleeping in her car, Ms Murray was couch-surfing across the south coast of New South Wales and staying in hostels. More recently, the local hostel has reached capacity with international students booking beds.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-16/students-face-critical-re…
# NSW, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market, Personal stories, Regional NSW, Students.Will city buyers regret moving to the regions post-pandemic?
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)The latest ABS statistics, which so far only track movements in 2020, found that 233,100 people left the cities to live in regional areas in Australia that year. ... Anecdotally, there have been stories about people fleeing the city and settling elsewhere only to realise they’ve acted in haste. “The difficulty then is that some find they can’t afford to buy again in the city,” said relocations expert Jill Weeks, the author of How to Retire in Australia. “We’re seeing some people come back, undoubtedly, but we’re also seeing this ‘half-back’ trend, where people move back as near to the city as they can afford. It’s for this reason, we always advise people to rent and try first, before they buy.”
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/will-city-buyers-regret-mov…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Regional NSW.Northern Irish housing association receives £100m investment from pension insurer
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)Northern Irish housing association Apex Housing has secured a £100m debt investment from a specialist insurer to go towards building new homes. ... Based in Derry/Londonderry, Apex owns and manages more than 6,000 homes across Northern Ireland. Its stock is set to increase to more than 7,000 once its current planned programmes are completed.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/northern-irish-housing…
# International, Public and community housing, Housing market.Government announces £174m to house 2,900 rough sleepers
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)Councils in England can now bid from a pot of £179m to get rough sleepers into long-term homes, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has announced. The funding, which will be made available through the government’s £433m Rough Sleeping Accommodation Programme, will go towards providing 2,900 move-on homes for rough sleepers between 2021 and 2024. It will also fund teams of specialist support staff offering mental health and substance misuse treatment. The homes include refurbished flats from unlettable homes in disrepair, new build properties, converted hotels and schools.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/government-announces-1…
# International, Homelessness, Housing market, Local Government.Interest rate rises expected in June with mortgage repayments to rise
Shane Wright and Jennifer Duke Domain (No paywall)Home buyers could face higher mortgage repayments as early as June as financial markets and economists warn a rapid run-up in inflation could force the Reserve Bank to lift official rates above 2 per cent within a year. In a development that feeds into growing federal concerns about cost-of-living pressures ahead of an election due by May, the nation’s biggest lender, the Commonwealth Bank, said it believed the RBA would have to start increasing interest rates by the middle of the year. Even a 1 per cent rise could add hundreds of dollars a month in repayments on the average new mortgage.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/interest-rate-rises-expecte…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Investor with 8000 homes calls for negative gearing to be axed
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)Investment adviser Robert Kiyosaki says the Australian government should axe negative gearing to provide an incentive for property buyers to choose wisely rather than “reward them for bad decisions”. The American author of the best-selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad is urging a debate over negative gearing to take centre stage during the upcoming 2022 election campaign. ... Independent economist Saul Eslake agrees. He said he’s been campaigning for the policy’s abolition ever since it was reintroduced in 1987 and believes claims that rents would increase dramatically without it are completely baseless.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/investor-with-8000-homes-ca…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.