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
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.State seizes control of supported care homes over abuse, ‘uninhabitable conditions’
By Jewel Topsfield and Royce Millar The Age (Paywall)The Victorian government has seized control of two supported care homes in Melbourne’s outer north-west after an investigation revealed coercion and abuse of residents, uninhabitable living conditions, forgery of signatures and access to NDIS services being hindered.
https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/state-se…
# Australia, Disability, Housing market.Shore and ore: Two factors driving record rent rises
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)Record rent rises across Australia are being driven by two factors: shore and ore. Coastal areas in many regions are home to rocketing rents as a result of city-dwellers pursuing sea changes in places that are less population- and COVID-dense, and trying before they buy. Mining towns, on the other hand, are continuing to surge on the back of strong resource prices.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/shore-and-ore-two-factors-d…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.Property industry slams ‘radical measure’ of extending commercial rent protection
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The property industry has hit back at the extension of protections for commercial tenants in NSW during the Omicron outbreak, warning the intervention threatens the state’s ability to attract investors and hurts landlords.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/property-industry-slams-radi…
# NSW, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.Australia’s low population growth increases slightly in the June 2021 quarter
Glenn (No paywall)The latest data shows Australia’s population growth increasing slightly in the June 2021 quarter. Glenn analyses the data in relation to COVID-19 and the different drivers of change across the states and territories. [Population, June 2021 Australia 25,739,256 (0.18% annual change; NSW 8,189,266 (0.27% annual change)] (.id informed decisions)
https://blog.id.com.au/2021/population/population-trends/austral…
# Research alert NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Planning and development.