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
The regions where property listings have surged post-lockdown
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Australia’s two biggest property markets have ended the year with a sharp slowdown, as a post-lockdown surge in homes for sale gives buyers greater choice and eases the fear of missing out.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-regions-where-property-…
# Australia, Housing market.S.F. metro area retains No. 1 spot as most expensive place to live in the U.S. Here’s how costs compare to rest of the nation
Roland Li and Nami Sumida (Paywall)The San Francisco metro area was the nation’s most expensive place to live in 2020 for the sixth year in a row, and California was the third-most expensive state, according to federal data released Tuesday. Prices in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metropolitan statistical area were 17.4% higher than the national average, with apartment rents 107.4% higher, though rental data incorporated the year 2019 instead of 2020 because the pandemic disrupted housing data surveys. The New York-Newark-Jersey City region was second at 15.5% more expensive than the national average, followed by Honolulu at 13.8% higher and the San Diego area at 13.4% above the average. The regional price rankings weigh rental housing, goods, utilities and other expenses against the national average. San Francisco Chronicle)
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-metro-…
# International, Rent, Housing market.Chaos for landlords as Purplebricks evictions rendered invalid
Melissa Lawford (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Landlord customers of beleaguered estate agent Purplebricks face more chaos and thousands of pounds in costs as hundreds of evictions running through the courts risk being dismissed. This comes after a systemic error by Purplebricks where it failed to properly serve documents to tenants regarding the government's deposit protection scheme. Failure to do so has meant landlords, and subsequently the estate agent, must pay up to three times the deposit as recompense. The Telegraph revealed the online estate agent's error this week and estimated the firm's liability at £30m. However, this newspaper has also learnt that any Section 21, or so-called “no-fault” eviction notice issued by a landlord using Purplebricks cannot pass through the courts. When a landlord serves a Section 21 notice, they must declare the tenant’s deposit has been properly registered. Therefore, notices served before Purplebricks' error came to light will have been made incorrectly. Thousands of Purplebricks tenants already evicted via Section 21 notices that were invalid can also claim back up to three times their deposit. This must also be paid for any time the lease was renewed and proper documentation was not served, meaning a renter who renewed twice could claim nine times their deposit as recompense. [Read on]
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/uk/chaos-landlords-purplebr…
# International, Eviction, Landlords and agents.Securing the city, making the city
Elara Shurety (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... This article addresses the phenomenon of contemporary property guardianship, a type of building security by live-in occupants, who pay below-market rents, as a growing method of dispersed policing. (Radical Housing Journal)
https://radicalhousingjournal.org/2021/securing-the-city-making-…
# International, Rent, Housing market.Singapore moves to cool housing market
The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Read item at 2:29pm by Bloomberg ... Singapore introduced residential property curbs for the first time since 2018 to cool a surge in home prices over the past year ... the government said it’s raising additional stamp duties for second-home buyers and foreigners purchasing private property.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/asx-set-to-rise-fed-sets…
# International, Housing market.CBA raises fixed rates again
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Read item at 11:02am ... Commonwealth Bank has made the latest increase in fixed mortgage rates, as the cost of locking in an interest rate continues to rise in response to market changes. The country’s largest lender on Thursday increased owner-occupier fixed rates by between 0.05 percentage points and 0.25 percentage points.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/asx-set-to-rise-fed-sets…
# Australia, Housing market.Brisbane has more tree cover than any other Australian capital, new aerial imagery shows
Tony Moore (Paywall)Greater Brisbane has more suburbs with good tree cover than any other Australian capital city, new aerial analysis has revealed. However, like other Australian capital cities, Brisbane is feeling the pressure of rising city temperatures as developers remove trees to provide less expensive housing in small-lot, high-density estates.
# Australia, Climate change, Housing market, Planning and development.Finally, dangerous power cuts are in the past for NT's first public housing tenant with rooftop solar
Samantha Jonscher ABC (No paywall)Norman Frank Jupurrurla's yard is green and tidy, no easy feat in Tennant Creek's often sweltering dry heat. In the past 12 months the small town in Central Australia experienced temperatures above 40 degrees on almost 50 days. Now, the Warumungu community leader and his family are more prepared than ever to face the heat, thanks to his brand new rooftop solar system. ... [The NT's Minister of Indigenous Essential Services, Chansey Paech] said the NT government was in talks with regional councils and land councils to understand how rooftop solar could be rolled out more widely.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-19/tennant-creek-rooftop-sol…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change.