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
Landlords, Tenant Lawyers Clash Over Underfunded Rent Relief
Suzannah Cavanaugh (Paywall)From the United States, landlord group accuses Legal Aid Society of “encouraging fraud” by advising tenants to shield themselves from eviction by applying for rent relief. (The Real Deal New York)
https://therealdeal.com/2022/01/14/landlords-tenant-lawyers-clas…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.Will climate change spell the end of coastal living as we know it?
Maani Truu ABC (No paywall)When Chris Rogers returned to the NSW Central Coast after a stint living overseas, he was eager to embrace the quintessential Australian lifestyle — a home where his kids could swim in the ocean whenever they liked and he could walk along the beach he loves every day. But more than a year after powerful swells battered Wamberal Beach, causing massive erosion beneath the waterfront properties, he's been left fearing his home could be washed away in the next storm surge.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-17/will-climate-change-put-a…
# NSW, Climate change, Housing market, Planning and development.‘There’s injustice’: Bronx fire victims mourned amid frustration and anger
The Guardian (No paywall)A Bronx community in New York city gathered on Sunday to pay its final respects to loved ones, a week after a fire filled a high-rise apartment building with thick, suffocating smoke that killed 17 people, including eight children. ... Officials blamed a faulty space heater in a third-floor apartment for the blaze, which spewed plumes of suffocating smoke that quickly rose through the stairwell of the 19-story building. Some residents said space heaters were sometimes needed to supplement the building’s heat and that repairs weren’t always timely.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/16/bronx-fire-victi…
# International, Affordable housing.The Singapore-inspired idea for using super for housing that could cut costs 50%
Cameron Murray The Conversation (No paywall)During the past four decades in which home ownership among Australians aged 25-34 has sunk from around 60% to 45%, home ownership among the same age group in Singapore has climbed from around 60% to 88%. There’s a good chance that’s because Singapore is doing something right. What Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, provides mortgages, and allows buyers to use their compulsory retirement savings (what Australians call superannuation) for both a deposit and repayments. There’s more to it than that. It limits eligibility by income and age, requires owners to hang on to the property for five years, and limits their resale to only other eligible buyers.
https://theconversation.com/the-singapore-inspired-idea-for-usin…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, International.London council reveals damp and disrepair plan in wake of ITV coverage
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Lewisham Homes has revealed that it has developed a damp and disrepair action plan after a tenant’s poor housing conditions were exposed by an ITV News investigation.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/london-council-reveals…
# International, Public and community housing, Repairs.‘Total mayhem’ as 200 people show for house inspection
Eliza Bavin (No paywall)A suburb in Sydney’s south-west was thrust into chaos as “200 plus” potential renters turned up for a house inspection, as the rental market tightens. ... “200-plus, maybe more, turned up. Total gridlock of the whole street. People driving on grass, on footpaths, parking everywhere and blocking driveways.” Police were dispatched to the area to control the crowd and clear the traffic which was gridlocked for around 30 minutes. This comes as renters are becoming increasingly desperate with a lack of available homes. (yahoo!finance)
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/200-people-show-for-house-insp…
# NSW, Rent, Housing market.Property investors, first-home buyers jumped back into the market pre-Omicron
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Property investors jumped back into the housing market at record levels in November ahead of the Omicron outbreak and first-home buyer loans increased for the first time in months. Investor lending hit a new high of $10.1 billion in November, latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows, up 3.8 per cent over the month. First-home buyer activity increased 1.9 per cent, breaking a downward trend since January 2021.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/property-investors-first…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing market.A landlords’ market: Perth tops nation for rental yields as prices boom
Emma Young The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Western Australia is seeing a surge in rental prices not seen since the 2013 mining boom with house rents the third-best performing in Australia, unit rents the second-best performing, and gross rental yields the country’s highest.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/a-landlords-ma…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.