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
Was relocating a good move? As the city reopens, I’m feeling a bit of FOMO
Kate Halfpenny The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)There are tons of people like us who ran for the hills during COVID. By August, over 22,000 of us decamped from Melbourne to rural Victoria. We were set on a cruisier life and bigger houses for less money, strangely pricked – me anyway – by the passage of time. Now, with Melbourne reopening, I’m feeling the odd prick of FOMO. I wonder how everyone else is going. Did we make a giant mistake? Is the countryside all it’s cracked up to be or is it now awash with townies suffering relocation remorse?
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/was-relo…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home, Housing market.Evicted for a yoga studio: The dark side of Byron Bay’s property boom
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When Byron Bay resident Fintan Callaghan’s rental accommodation was converted into a yoga studio, he did not expect to wind up homeless. His landlord gave him three months’ notice and Mr Callaghan, 52, immediately started looking for a place that he and his two teenagers could call home. “You’d go to a house inspection for a tiny little flat and or a converted garage and there would be maybe 20 couples lined up at the front door,” Mr Callaghan said. “I probably put in at least 30 applications over that three-month period – I basically just applied for everything I could afford and a few things I knew I couldn’t afford … because it was getting desperate.” ... It took until May before they were reunited in public housing in Suffolk Park, a suburb of Byron Bay. He describes the fact they have a bedroom each, a backyard, and that the rent is set at a third of his income as “life-changing”.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/evicted-for-a-yoga-studio-th…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Regional NSW.Dream of Buying a Home Gets Harder for Single Mothers
Tara Siegel Bernard The New York Times (Paywall)From the United States ... Lost pay during the pandemic and high costs threaten strides they had made in homeownership, often a key driver of long-term wealth. ... Even without the benefit of a second earner, single mothers — those who have never married — have made up a growing share of home buyers over the past three decades. Although they still lag single fathers and married couples, a quarter of single mothers were homeowners in 2019 — roughly double the rate in 1990, according to a recent report from the Urban Institute. But the pandemic threatens to dampen that progress, experts said. Women have borne the brunt of the job losses over the last year and a half, while also shouldering most of the child-care responsibilities — an acute challenge for single mothers, especially those with young children. At the same time, the housing market has grown highly competitive: Prices of single-family homes rose nearly 20 percent in August, the latest data available, from a year earlier ...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/11/your-money/single-mothers-hom…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Women, Work, employment.Unfair evictions hurt us all
Making Renting Fair Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Check out our Facebook Page and sign the petition at: [www.rentingfair.org.au/how-we-win]
https://www.facebook.com/MakeRentingFairNSW/?hc_ref=ARRPm15RuUci…
# Hot topic NSW, Eviction, Rent, Campaigns and law reform.If health and education are essential services in Spain, why not housing?
Irene Baque The Guardian (No paywall)A renters’ movement in Catalonia is saving families from eviction and trying to fill the gap left by the state. Since 2019, people threatened by eviction have been able to turn to the local chapter of El Sindicat de Llogateres, a renters’ union founded in Barcelona and active across Catalonia. Read the story and watch the video!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2021/nov/11/heal…
# Must read, Video International, Eviction, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Homelessness.NSW renters now able to access $4500 support payment, as eviction moratorium ends
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Renters in NSW who have lost work due to the coronavirus pandemic can now directly access up to $4500 in rental support, as the state’s four-month eviction moratorium comes to an end. The original scheme has provided more than $34 million in rental rebates to landlords since July, for more than 15,360 tenancies, said minister for better regulation Kevin Anderson. It has now been further extended and simplified – scrapping the requirement for a landlord to apply – to ease COVID-related financial stress. ... It is hoped opening applications up to tenants will help clear rental arrears, and help to avoid disputes and recovery action for rent during the three-month transitional period that will follow the end of the eviction moratorium on Thursday. “This is a really good move and we’re very very pleased to see it,” said Leo Patterson Ross, chief executive of the Tenants’ Union of NSW. “It will make a big difference for a lot of people who have been left frustrated and not getting the support that they needed [from their landlord or property managers] during the last few months.” ... However some tenants had been fearful of seeking support via their property manager in the first place, Mr Patterson Ross noted, concerned they could be deemed a risky tenant and face a no-grounds eviction down the track. He said no-ground evictions had also made it too easy for landlords to sidestep around the moratorium, and needed to be reformed.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/nsw-renters-now-able-to-access-45…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.Housing should be for use value, not exchange value
John Menadue Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)Housing policies should reflect the sort of society we want to live in, not the quest for wealth accumulation. A home is not a commodity.
https://johnmenadue.com/john-menadue-housing-should-be-for-use-v…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market, Human rights, Planning and development.Byron real estate's new heights: $750K price tag for cabin in council caravan park
Bruce MacKenzie ABC (No paywall)The Byron Shire Mayor says the $750,000 asking price for a cabin in a beachside council-run caravan park is another sign of a property market gone mad. The two-bedroom cabin at Suffolk Park is being offered for sale on a local real estate website, but the purchase price does not include the land. Councillor Michael Lyon said current caravan park legislation was designed to allow for affordable housing. But he said the council could not interfere with the sale process. "It's perverse, it was certainly never intended that way," Cr Lyon said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-12/byron-real-estate-pervers…
# NSW, Land lease communities, Housing market, Regional NSW.