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 Sydney suburbs where rents are cheaper than they were five years ago
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)House rents across Greater Sydney are holding at a record high, but rents in a string of suburbs are still more than $100 a week cheaper than they were five years ago. Inner-city Millers Point and Ultimo, and Clovelly in the eastern suburbs, are among 11 suburbs where the median weekly asking rent has dropped more than 10 per cent below what it was back in 2016.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/the-sydney-suburbs-where-rents-ar…
# NSW, Rent, Housing market.Australian renters facing biggest rent hikes in 12 years, amid surging house prices
David Chau ABC (No paywall)Australian tenants are experiencing their biggest annual rent increases since January 2009, during the global financial crisis. he median rent of houses and units jumped to $476 per week in June, a 6.6 per cent increase compared to the same time last year, according to the latest CoreLogic data. Regional tenants were hit with their biggest yearly rent hike ever, with the median figure up 11.3 per cent to $441. It was driven largely by sea changers (or tree changers) wanting a better lifestyle and no longer needing to commute to the CBD every day as they did in pre-COVID times.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-19/rent-corelogic-property-h…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Push the Optimism Forward: Destigmatizing Homelessness and What We Can Do About it
Ahmad Bonakdar and Stephen Gaetz (No paywall)From Canada, For too long, policymakers have not treated the issue of homelessness with enough weight. It is often pushed aside in favour of more pro-growth agendas. For the most part, what we see today as “modern” mass homelessness has come from the rise of neoliberal policies that have led to a social housing crisis. Historically, before the millennium, efforts to bring the public’s attention to the issue of homelessness have not been a priority. Also, policies in the 1990s were not prevention focused and therefore allowed homelessness to become a social issue. What made the problem worse was the myths spread through the media about what causes someone to become homelessness. (Homeless Hub)
https://www.homelesshub.ca/blog/push-optimism-forward-destigmati…
# International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Young people.Rents Are Out Of Reach For Most Americans Earning Minimum Wage, A Study Says
Vanessa Romo (No paywall)American renters are well aware of the dire housing market situation and a new report confirms that it's only likely to worsen unless hourly wages are drastically increased. From the United States ... Workers simply don't earn enough money to keep up with skyrocketing rental rates across the country, the National Low Income Housing Coalition found in its latest Out of Reach report. ... Meanwhile, affordable units are increasingly rare. An analysis shows that only in 218 of more than 3,000 counties nationwide can a full-time minimum wage worker afford a one-bedroom rental home at fair market rent without dipping into income that should be used for all other living expenses and savings. ... [The report] states affordable rents are most elusive for renters of color who are most likely to have low-wage earning jobs and are, therefore, at greater risk of eviction. (NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/14/1016230724/rents-are-out-of-reach…
# International, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing affordability, Housing market.Australians are facing the highest growth in rent prices since GFC
Soofia Tariq The Guardian (No paywall)Rent has climbed at its fastest rate in more than a decade, with some weekly payments up 10%, new data shows. Although the CoreLogic national rent index, released on Monday, points to some relief in the previous quarter – 3.41% in the June quarter, down from 3.55% over the March quarter and 3.73% a year earlier – nationally rental rates rose by 6.6% in the past 12 months, the highest annual growth since the global financial crisis in 2009. The median rent of houses and units jumped to $476 a week in June, a 6.6% increase compared with the same time last year. Regional rents reported the largest annual increase on record, with the median figure up 11.3% to $441, due largely to sea changers moving during the pandemic.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2021/jul/19/australians-are-f…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Regional NSW.Plumbers fail drainage inspections at hundreds of new properties
Rachel Eddie The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Hundreds of plumbers failed drainage inspections at new properties in Victoria last year, with one tradies fined 27 times, under a new infringement aimed at catching shoddy workmanship before it causes structural damage to homes. The Victorian Building Authority handed out 257 fines totalling $127,472 in the past 12 months following 1100 inspections of new, below-ground sanitary pipes. But the number of inspections represents less than 2 per cent of all the drains that could be audited, prompting the plumbing industry’s peak body to call for a regulator with more teeth.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/plumbers-fail-drainage-…
# Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Housing market.Apartment complex in Sydney’s north latest to fall foul of watchdog
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)An apartment building on Sydney’s northern beaches is the latest project to be issued orders to fix serious defects as the state’s building watchdog cracks down on shoddy construction work. ... Inspectors from the state’s building watchdog visited the site on July 1 and found that serious defects could arise from waterproofing of balconies and the installation of a system that stacks cars. They determined that a lack of safety measures for the stacker could result in serious injuries.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/apartment-complex-in-sydney-…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Sydney luxury home prices set to eclipse the world
Carolyn Cummins The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydney has been ranked as the world’s leading city in luxury homes in the Knight Frank 2021 prime forecast report, with prices expected to rise 10 per cent over the coming year. ... [Knight Frank Australia’s head of residential research, Michelle Ciesielski said] “Many of our ultra-wealthy clients are now embracing the low interest rate environment to expand their property portfolios further ...
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/sydney-luxury-home-pri…
# NSW, Housing market, Landlords and agents.