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
Co-living has been touted as one way to combat the housing crisis, but some say the concept is about maximising rent
Zilla Gordon ABC (No paywall)More than 350,000 Australians are living as part of a group household according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) — more than ever before. While the ABS defines group housing as a household consisting of two unrelated people where all the residents are aged 15 years or older, they're also referred to as share houses. Demand for this type of accommodation has skyrocketed amid an exceedingly tight rental market and affordability crisis — and it's left people looking for alternatives. Some say co-living — housing where some spaces are shared with other residents — could be the solution. But one planning expert believes the concept is a marketing ploy.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-18/co-living-housing-crisis-…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Share houses, Starting a tenancy.Alan Kohler: We need an AEMO for housing to match supply with demand
Alan Kohler The New Daily (No paywall)Here’s why nothing effective is being done about housing affordability. In the past 12 months, every Australian who owns a house or apartment, which is most of us, made an extra $82,648, on average, from the increase in its value, and since only half of that gets taxed, it’s more than the average wage. The ABS reports that the total value of dwelling stock at the end of March was $10.7 trillion, $917.4 billion more than a year ago, and there are 11.1 million dwellings. Actually the 12-month capital gain for home owners was 12 per cent, since there is a total of $2.3 trillion in mortgage debt, so the total equity of Australia’s home owners increased from $7.5 trillion to $8.4 trillion.
https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2024/06/18/alan-kohler-ae…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, .Rental in ruins after property manager pockets nearly $10k in funds paid by landlord for repairs
Zarisha Bradley 9 News (No paywall)You've got to see the state of this rental to believe it. It's severely damaged and disgusting. The landlords paid repair bills over the years but it turns out that money never left the property manager's pocket. "This was done as an investment property for our retirement and it's pretty much all gone to hell," landlord Jennifer Creighton told A Current Affair. "You can't get much lower than this." The Creightons' tenancy trouble didn't come to light until their family received heartbreaking news. "So I was diagnosed with cancer and it's terminal so we wanted to put the running of the property into my daughter Kim's name and my son Brady's name so that we could finalise it, put it up for sale and have it gone before anything happened to me," Jennifer said.
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/rental-in-ruins-after-…
# Video Australia, Rent, Repairs.Struggling with rent? It’s time to speak up
Dominic Powell The Age (Soft Paywall)In Australia, almost exactly one third of us are renters, with the other two thirds owning homes either with or without a mortgage. Of that third who rent, approximately 60 per cent are aged 35 and under, a significant increase from the late 20th century when many people in this age bracket were homeowners. A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says the rise in renting “has had a disproportionate impact on younger households”, a demographic who are also disproportionately affected by the current cost of living crisis. They’re axing their spending far more than older generations, partially due to – you guessed it – being renters instead of homeowners.
https://www.theage.com.au/money/saving/struggling-with-rent-it-s…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent.Social rent homes in England fall by more than quarter of a million in decade
Chaminda Jayanetti The Guardian (No paywall)More than a quarter of a million social rent homes in England have been lost in the last decade, according to analysis of government statistics. Between April 2013 and April 2023, the number of social housing homes owned by local authorities and housing associations in England fell by 260,464 units, according to the charity Shelter, which calculated the figures. Polly Neate, its chief executive, said: “We are seeing more social housing being sold off or demolished than built, despite the staggering 1.3m households stuck on social housing waiting lists in desperate need of a genuinely affordable home.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/09/social-r…
# Must read International, Public and community housing, Rent.The cat in the flat: Singapore lifts ban on pets in public housing
Rebecca Ratcliffe The Guardian (No paywall)Tommy is, without doubt, the head of his household. If he wants the air conditioning switched on, he simply glares at the unit on the wall. If he wants an early night, he’ll miaow for the TV to be silenced. But, until now, he has been living in violation of a law that bans cats from much of Singapore’s housing. This year, the 34-year ban will be overturned, allowing the city’s many fugitive cats to breathe a sigh of relief. Tommy’s owner, Adam, 42, who spoke under a pseudonym because he is breaking the regulation, says he can’t understand why the ban existed in the first place.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/10/the-cat-in…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Starting a tenancy.Stabilising rents in England: why and how we should limit rent rises
Tarun Bhakta Shelter UK (No paywall)The conversation in England about rent controls is a mess. Very often you will hear 'rent controls don’t work' as a throw away comment, often without any evidence - and that throwaway comment is used to dismiss any kind of regulation of rents. One of the most frustrating things about this take is that it’s far too simple. There are hundreds of different types of rent controls - ranging from ‘rent freezes’ to ‘rent pressure zones’ to ‘rent stabilisation’. And to say that they simply 'don’t work' ignores the fact that many countries across Europe are operating some form of rent control. In fact, regulating rents is totally normal. In many places it’s a fundamental element of living in a secure, stable rental system. Something we really really lack in England. Shelter is calling on all parties to commit to security and stability for renters.
https://england.shelter.org.uk/what_we_do/updates_insights_and_i…
# Must read International, Rent.When I look back on 14 years of Tory rule, there is one awful housing policy that stands out
Peter Apps The Guardian (No paywall)hat springs to mind when you think about the damaging legacy of the last 14 years of welfare cuts? Probably policies such as the bedroom tax, the two-child limit or the punitive introduction of universal credit. But one policy is often left out of this reckoning, even though it has arguably had an even greater impact: the repeated capping and freezing of local housing allowance (LHA). This cut is a direct cause of Britain’s soaring homelessness figures, the desperate mothers trapped for years in wholly unsuitable temporary housing, the rapid social cleansing of our major cities and even the financial crisis overwhelming England’s local authorities.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/05/14…
# Hot topic International, .