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
Build-to-rent apartments in Denman Prospect aim to relieve Canberra's housing shortage
Harry Frost and Markus Mannheim ABC (No paywall)Canberra has had the highest rental prices of all capital cities for almost a year. ... National Shelter, a housing lobby group, said the ACT market was particularly horrific for poorer renters, as they must compete with much higher-paid Canberrans. The group's executive officer, Adrian Pisarski, said the city's relatively high incomes masked "a terrible situation for low-income households, by pushing average affordability higher while it remained shockingly unaffordable for people on low incomes". A solution — for a small number of tenants, at least — is on the horizon. Unveiled in the territory this week was the latest "build-to-rent" project: housing complexes dedicated to renters.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-07/new-housing-aims-to-relie…
# Australia, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market.Is your neighbourhood underinsured? Search our map to find out
Kate Isabel Booth The Conversation (No paywall)Underinsurance is more common than many realise. And if you live in an area where most people don’t have enough home and/or contents insurance, the financial and social catastrophe that follows a disaster can be community-wide. ... Renters often don’t have contents insurance. The data show that a poorer suburb with a high rate of rental properties will likely be the most underinsured. ... it is housing tenure (whether someone owns or rents) that contributes most significantly to the patterns seen in the map. ... As property values have climbed, many Australians have been priced out of home ownership and driven into long-term renting. And as rents go up, more of the household budget is spent on rental payments. When households are under financial stress, they are more likely to drop insurance. The end result is a lot of renters don’t have contents insurance. [And] Climate-exacerbated disasters are also driving changes in the affordability and availability of house and/or contents insurance. Together, these trends in housing, renting, climate change and insurance could potentially create new pockets of entrenched disadvantage.
https://theconversation.com/is-your-neighbourhood-underinsured-s…
# Australia, Rent, Climate change, Families, Home ownership.House values soar by $2 trillion since start of pandemic
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Reserve Bank has left itself room to start normalising the cost of mortgages as record-low interest rates helped drive Australian house values up by $2 trillion since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rba-sits-tight-over-chri…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.They bought a puppy for their son in lockdown. Strata did something ‘absurd’
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)When health worker Georgia Dawson applied for permission to keep her dog in her apartment, she was stunned to be told her building was considering imposing a bond on all pet owners of $2000.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/they-bought-a-puppy-for-the…
# Hot topic NSW, Strata, Families, Pets, State Government.Sweden: SUT launches 10 proposals for a sustainable housing policy
(No paywall)Hyresgästföreningen (Swedish Union of Tenants) is calling for a policy for more and better homes. Here are the SUT proposal for a comprehensive policy for the Swedish rental market ... (International Union of Tenants News)
https://www.iut.nu/news-events/sweden-sut-launches-10-proposals-…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Housing market, Planning and development, Tax.The energy divide begins at home. These figures explain why.
Taneesha Amos-Hampson (No paywall)Put simply, our most vulnerable people, including those who are financially insecure and many who are renting, have less access to virtually every form of energy efficiency tool and technology than those who are financially comfortable. We have created a system – or allowed one to develop — that ensures the people who can least afford it will be paying most for their energy bills. (Energy Consumers Australia)
https://energyconsumersaustralia.com.au/news/the-energy-divide-b…
# Must read Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Minimum habitability standards.Good cause eviction has momentum leading into 2022
Rebecca C Lewis (No paywall)From the United States ... After efforts to get legislation passed to limit when a landlord can evict tenants and raise rents failed to move in Albany earlier this year, housing advocates went local. Over the summer, they began organizing to pass so-called good cause eviction bills in upstate cities, aiming to enact municipal protections as the statewide fight continued. In a few short months, advocates saw success – four cities, including Albany and Poughkeepsie, enacted good cause eviction laws. “It’s been surprising in some ways how quickly these local good cause campaigns have moved,” said Brahvan Ranga, a political organizer with the housing group For the Many, which helped mobilize those upstate campaigns. That local success has given the statewide push for new tenant protections fresh momentum. The fight for good cause laws represents a fairly unique situation with municipal movements paving the way for potential statewide action. And advocates and some lawmakers alike feel confident that 2022 will be the year for landmark housing reforms. (City & State New York)
https://www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2021/12/good-cause-evictio…
# International, Eviction, Rent, No-grounds evictions.Evictions Survey: What’s Happening on the Ground
National Housing Law Project (No paywall)From the United States ... This fall, the National Housing Law Project surveyed 119 legal aid and civil rights attorneys in 41 states, DC, and Puerto Rico to see how tenants were faring after the federal eviction moratorium ended in August 2021. ... This survey captures an important moment in time and offers a look at what is actually happening on the ground now. It also offers ideas for how to improve our current housing and court systems, which have usually put tenants last. (National Housing Law Project)
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.