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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Crowded, dirty and a lack of regulation: COVID-19 ticking time bombs in the suburbs
Natassia Chrysanthos The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Here's a story from last year which we're running again ... Boarding houses have become coronavirus ticking time bombs in Sydney's suburbs, with experts warning poor hygiene, chronic health issues and a lack of regulation make them "perfectly suited" to an outbreak.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/crowded-dirty-and-a-lack-of-…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Homelessness.One bed and a ‘shower-kitchen’: Housing a hurdle for families in Sydney’s west
Natassia Chrysanthos and Angus Thompson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Eight-year-old Mee Mee Myat would love her own bed one day. She thinks it would be cool if she could hang out in the kitchen without hearing the shower run or toilet flush, too. But her home of the last few years – an old pool house at the back of a property in Blacktown – isn’t big enough to fit two mattresses, so hers sits propped against the fence outside. And she and mother, Su, make meals in what they call “the shower-kitchen”. Crowded housing is at its worst in Sydney’s west and south-west – the parts of the city hit hardest by COVID-19 – and advocates say the pandemic demonstrates the region’s dire need for more affordable housing. Mee Mee and Ms Myat don’t have much room to move. To the left of the foyer is the room where they share a bed and eat. To the right is a room that combines the shower, toilet and kitchen, with a curtain separating them. ... Chief executive of Homelessness NSW, Katherine McKernan, said many families in west and south-west Sydney were living together in cramped conditions because there were no other affordable options. ... Ms McKernan said the government needed to see affordable housing as “critical community infrastructure fundamental to the health of all” and create 5000 properties each year for the next 10 years to meet demand. “If we can’t act on providing affordable housing now when it is the primary response to keeping people safe from COVID-19 and will help the economy, then when?“
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/one-bed-and-a-shower-kitchen…
# Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Minimum habitability standards.Victoria urged to double social housing build ‘sugar hit’
Rachel Eddie The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Victoria’s infrastructure adviser says the government needs to more than double its historic investment in social housing to meet a dire shortfall and catch up to the rest of the country. In its 30-year blueprint tabled in the Victorian Parliament on Thursday, Infrastructure Victoria said the state needed to build an extra 3900 to 4900 homes every year for the next 10 years. The major investment is needed on top of the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build announced last year to fund 12,000 new social and affordable homes in four years.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/victoria/victoria-urged-to-doubl…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Housing market, State Government.Support for tenants ... on ABC Newcastle Breakfast
ABC (No paywall)Listen to Nicole Grgas of Hunter Tenants Advice and Advocacy Service speak about help for those renting during the lockdown. She states: 'This package doesn't prevent a landlord from giving an impacted tenant a no-grounds notice. And so we think the protections don't go far enough.' Go to 1:43:15 point at this link.
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/people/jenny-marchant-and-dan-cox/1…
# Hot topic, Audio NSW, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Landlords and agents, No-grounds evictions, State Government.Housing boom to slow rapidly from mid-2022: report
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Homes are taking twice as long to build during the coronavirus pandemic and a national building boom, but analysts warn the sector is facing a hangover as the record level of construction declines. ... [UNSW City Futures Research Centre’s Professor Bill Randolph said] “There isn’t any immigration so there’s no one coming in to pick up the slack ... [Builders are] going to find themselves in trouble, it’s a rational concern. However, he said this could lead to a kneejerk reaction to change the planning system to try to push through more approvals. He encouraged builders to instead consider supporting large-scale social housing investments as it would provide them a good pipeline of work and assist with housing affordability."
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/housing-boom-to-slow-rap…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market, Planning and development.Rent vs buy? Five economists weigh in on what you should do
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)In last week’s column [at: https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/is-it-better-to-rent-or-buy-i-ran-the-numbers-to-find-out-20210813-p58ij6.html], I poked a hornet’s nest by refusing to give the standard financial advice that it is always better to buy a home, rather than “rent-vest” by continuing to rent and investing. I concluded that: “Overall… the rent versus buy decision is one you have to make for yourself, depending on your circumstances.” This week, I took my analysis to five economists to get their thoughts.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/rent-vs-buy-five-economis…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership.Illawarra tenants,landlords battle over mould in rentals
Desiree Savage (Paywall)Illawarra tenants are copping the blame for hazardous black mould in rentals, but it could be the landlord who is at fault for endangering their health. (Illawarra Mercury)
# NSW, Rent, Repairs, Landlords and agents, Mould.Lloyds aiming to become giant UK landlord
BBC (No paywall)Lloyds is planning to become one of the UK's biggest landlords as it aims to buy 50,000 homes in the next decade. The banking giant is to charge tenants rent as a private landlord under its recently launched Citra Living brand. ... At the launch of Citra Living, Andy Hutchinson, managing director, said the intention was for the brand to work with leading housebuilders to identify sites and buy properties on them for tenants to rent. "As well as ensuring continued support for the housebuilding sector, this will also help to address the increase in demand for rental properties at the same time," he said.
# International, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.