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 Tech That Slumlords Hate
Ethan McLeod (No paywall)Housing activists, officials and researchers are deploying new tools to empower tenants, spotlight negligent property owners and curb evictions in U.S. cities. The first words on the sign — “VACANT PROPERTY” — posted on the front door of a boarded-up rowhouse in Baltimore’s Upton neighborhood may overstate the obvious: The two-story brick home, its front steps sandwiched between tall weeds and a pile of garbage, clearly hasn’t been inhabited for some time. But the QR code sitting in the sign’s bottom right corner is a window to a trove of more expansive information about this building. ... Several new tools are aiming to confront opaque systems that tend to benefit property owners at neighbors’ and tenants’ expense. Some, like Baltimore’s QR code program, boost transparency and help the public hold property owners and landlords accountable. Others are advocate-led projects that aim to shine a spotlight on serial evictors, ward off the long-dreaded eviction cliff of forced displacement, and help tenants weather the huge spike in rents affecting cities nationwide. Think of this as the flip-side to the flurry of “proptech” innovation aimed at real estate investors and developers ... (Bloomberg CityLab)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-07/tenants-use-n…
# Must read International, Eviction, Rent, Repairs, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Minimum habitability standards, Planning and development.Victoria's new $500m Homebuyer Fund will see the government own part of up to 3,000 homes
ABC (No paywall)Victoria is launching a $500 million fund to get homebuyers into the market, in exchange for a share in the property. Treasurer Tim Pallas said the Victorian Homebuyers Fund (VHF) is expected to help about 3,000 residents buy a home. ... Under the plan, would-be homeowners need to have a 5 per cent deposit, with the government able to kick in up to 25 per cent of the value of the home. They do not need to be first homebuyers, but cannot currently own a property. "They'll be able to buy homes with the help of the Victorian government, which will be an equity partner in the purchase," Mr Pallas said. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Victorians will be able to apply for the fund with only a 3.5 per cent deposit.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-08/victoria-announces-500m-h…
# Audio Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, State Government.Tablelands caravan park residents say council order will leave them homeless
Phil Brandel ABC (No paywall)Long-term residents at a Tablelands caravan park are facing homelessness after being told to leave by the end of next month, when the local council puts the park up for commercial lease. In late 2020, the Tablelands Regional Council (TRC) made the decision to "get out of the caravan business" and put Lakeside Caravan Park in Yungaburra and the Malanda Falls Caravan Park up for commercial tender.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-08/homeless-tablelands-carav…
# Australia, Eviction, Land lease communities, Homelessness.Call to improve energy efficiency in homes
Norman Hermant ABC (No paywall)
The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) wants to see low-income homes undergo an energy transformation. It's released a report on the economic impact of the proposed National Low-Income Energy Productivity Program, which would retrofit 1.8 million energy inefficient homes. (ABC AM)
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/adelaide/programs/am/call-to-improv…
# Audio Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Minimum habitability standards.Rent to buy: The scheme younger Australians are using to fight high prices
Sezen Bakan The New Daily (No paywall)Younger Australians who never thought they had a chance of owning a home are getting a foot on the property ladder through rent-to-buy schemes. The industry has a chequered history, with many people in the past losing deposits when they failed to follow through with their intended purchase.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2021/10/10/rent-to-buy-home/
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market.Missing apostrophe in Facebook post lands NSW real estate agent in legal hot water
The Guardian (No paywall)A real estate agent’s failure to use an apostrophe in a Facebook post could prove costly after a New South Wales court declined to dismiss a defamation case against him on the basis it was trivial.
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/oct/10/missing-apostrophe-i…
# NSW, Landlords and agents.‘Knocks me out’: Moves to cool hot property market lock out first home buyers
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Ashley Van Deyk was finding the competition with other home buyers tough enough before this week’s news of tighter lending rules. Now the 24-year-old, who is trying to buy her first unit on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, fears she will be among those bearing the brunt of a move to put the brakes on higher-risk mortgages.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/knocks-me-ou…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Young people.Perrottet, Trump and their architecture of pie-eyed beauty
Elizabeth Farrelly The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)One of several things Perrottet and Trump share is a hatred of modern architecture. Why? Because, they say, it’s ugly. ... Perrottet’s anti-Modern spray last November was strictly of the “I don’t know much about architecture but I know what I like” variety, a calculated sop to populist anti-intellectualism. He picked soft targets which only the few, the knowledgeable, would defend – the Sirius, Seidler’s Blues Point Tower, White Bay power station and assorted charmless annexures to grand old buildings. ... Proudly aligning himself with the “architecturally unenlightened”, Perrottet declared: “The fact a building might photograph nicely at dusk – and thrill a coterie of architectural sophisticates with its bold articulation of the revolutionary maxims of Fifth-Wave-Neo-Post-Structuralist design theory – doesn’t count for much if it’s an eyesore.” So it’s all about beauty.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/perrottet-trump-and-their-ar…
# NSW, Heritage listings.