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
Rent controls are becoming a highly divise issue in Europe
(No paywall)Rent controls are becoming increasingly popular in many European nations, but experts note that they rarely solve housing crises on their own and can even scare investors away. Rent controls are government policies, whether on local or a national level, that aim to cap house price increases. They are intended to keep housing affordable, at least for the most vulnerable parts of a population. However, the policy has its critics. In Sweden, for example, rent controls effectively toppled the government there. In Germany, the matter was subject to a year-long legal battle. Meanwhile, lawmakers in the Netherlands, the U.K. and Ireland have all had similar discussions about their property markets. (International Union of Tenants News)
https://www.iut.nu/news-events/rent-controls-are-becoming-a-high…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Housing market.Homeownership can bring out the worst in you
Jerusalem Demsas (No paywall)From the United States ... It’s the biggest thing you might ever buy. And it could be turning you into a bad person. ... Homeownership, as it has evolved in the United States, often turns its beneficiaries against progress and change, manifesting as anything from opposing homeless shelters in your neighborhood to blocking transit projects in your region. This identity transcends partisanship, a rarity in our polarized age. You’ll find Democrats and Republicans alike screaming opposition to change and growth, no matter what it costs. To that end, Republicans have supported onerous regulations they would likely scoff at in the abstract, and Democrats have defended a system that has perpetuated the racial and economic segregation they often rail against in theory. What can help explain this phenomenon? ... Homeownership is supposed to mean security, opportunity, and a sense of investment in your community. But often, the pressure of tying your family’s financial security to one asset incentivizes homeowners to behave selfishly and antisocially, opposing important public works that could provide significant public benefits. (Vox)
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22597947/homeowner-nimby-affordabl…
# International, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, Race and ethnicity.Research suggests ending eviction moratoriums led to spikes in COVID cases and deaths
Brad Smith (No paywall)Freom the United States ... Research by a UCLA-led team has determined that the number of COVID-19 cases and the number of deaths from the disease both increased dramatically after states lifted eviction moratoriums that had been in place to protect people who were struggling to make rent payments during the pandemic. The study found that the number of COVID-19 cases doubled and the number of deaths attributable to the disease increased fivefold, in the four-month period after eviction moratoriums expired. (UCLA Newsroom)
https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ending-eviction-moratoriums-i…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health.Investors helped by housing tax breaks pile into property market as prices rise
Nassim Khadem The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Data from CoreLogic, to be released later this morning, is expected to show another leap in national house prices. That will please millions of Australians who own their own home or investment property, but it also puts housing further out of reach for first-time buyers. Bill Shorten, who made housing affordability a centrepiece of Labor's 2019 federal election strategy, noted: "This nation can't keep giving away money to property investors to make losses on property." The former Labor leader had wanted to change the rules surrounding the popular negative gearing tax break, which allows more than a million Australians to claim net rental property "losses" against their non-real estate income. Under Mr Shorten's plan, negative gearing would have been restricted to new homes, and the capital gains tax discount — which allows investors to flip properties at a profit without hefty tax bills and costs the federal budget just shy of $10 billion annually — would have been reduced from 50 per cent to 25 per cent. But last week, as Labor leader Anthony Albanese reportedly sold his Marrickville investment home for $2.35 million, he announced the party would dump both policies ahead of the next federal election, at the same time as abandoning Labor's opposition to the federal government's stage 3 tax cuts.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-02/house-prices-negative-gea…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.Australia's 'hidden' housing problem: Migrants and refugees are overrepresented among the homeless population
Norman Hermant ABC (No paywall)Life in Australia has been a long and exhausting journey for Roya Hamidavi and her family. After arriving at Christmas Island with her mother and brother in 2012, she was taken to Adelaide and then Brisbane. The family are Ahwazi Arabs from Iran. They were issued temporary protection visas and in 2015 moved to Melbourne's outer western suburbs. Finding a home has been a constant struggle. "It was very hard to find a place," Roya said. They are refugees, but not permanent residents. Even for places they could afford, their status was a huge barrier. "When we offer our documents, we don't have any. Just driver's licence. That's it. We don't have any other documents."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-02/australias-hidden-migrant…
# Australia, Discrimination, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market, Personal stories, Race and ethnicity.Household mould is making some Illawarra families sick
Desiree Savage (Paywall)It has caused serious respiratory issues and debilitating illness, even sending babies to emergency rooms. It's not COVID-19, it's mould, and many Illawarra homes are breeding grounds for the insidious fungal growth. ... The Mercury has spoken with dozens of residents affected by mould, many renting and currently fighting with landlords to get their problems fixed, while others have been forced into Airbnb accommodation while their homes are stripped and repaired. ... Albion Park resident Renee Ellington says the health of her family has deteriorated since mould broke out in their rental property - including a daughter taken to hospital with breathing issues and severe eczema appearing all over her baby son. [Read others' stories]
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/7356804/why-some-illaw…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Landlords and agents, Mould, Regional NSW.‘Housing for hippies now for hipsters’: Alternative plan to boost affordability
Angus Thompson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Co-living, a trendy new wave of communal housing championed by millennials, [sometimes called 'new or next generation boarding houses] will be automatically approved in all areas where apartments are allowed in order to flood NSW with affordable developments. Seniors will also be housed in “vertical villages” that could be in the middle of CBDs or on top of shopping centres under new planning changes to boost housing options amid an affordability crisis and shortages of supply. The reforms under the NSW government’s new consolidated housing policy also include classing aged care homes as state significant developments to create more appropriate facilities and giving greater flexibility over the allowable size of secondary dwellings on rural-metropolitan land. You will find a link to the proposed Housing State Environmental Planning Policy at: [https://email.dpie.nsw.gov.au/housing-sepp-consultation-draft-now-on-exhibtion?ecid=ACsprvvbcxZlNePPw37YRtwd8OQYilI1r7juBMns6NBTrGyb63NzTeV55zwAo_9uH8YsbYLr0Voa&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--omcs-G-7jo5MECI6cGJpgbt-EjmhUqp24UcgMiP7pQEohS_VpaU2hK7was12A8HHF_OPgsLp46Mf6bfL8Dz_mSNvyiL4_1rUGeYBNJKyBoXC3d6Y]
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/housing-for-hippies-now-for-…
# NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Rent, Share houses, Affordable housing, Housing market, Older people, Planning and development, State Government, Tax, Young people.Housing groups call for ‘ring of steel’ to protect struggling renters
Henrietta Cook The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Housing groups are calling on the state government to wrap a “financial ring of steel” around residential tenants who are struggling to pay their rent due to lockdowns. It comes as the preliminary results of a Tenants Victoria survey of 400 renters found that 70 per cent had taken a financial hit during the state’s latest lockdown, losing an average $1280 in income. About half of these renters said this had affected their ability to pay rent. ... Ms Jennifer Beveridge [of Tenants Victoria] said financial assistance for struggling renters and landlords and a freeze on evictions should be implemented whenever the chief health officer declares a lockdown. “We urgently need a financial ring of steel for residential renters who are struggling in lockdown,” she said.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/housing-groups-call-for…
# Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, State Government.