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
No one cares
Daniel Hewitt (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... If we had to sum up in a sentence how the tenants we have spoken to over the 3 months feel - the one phrase that comes up most: “No one cares.” (ITV)
https://twitter.com/DanielHewittITV/status/1402021710921089025
# Audio International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Millionaires who paid no tax and the richest and poorest postcodes revealed
Nassim Khadem and Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)Scroll down this article to "How are we earning the money?" Read on ... The number of landlords continued to edge higher to 2.24 million, and 58.6 per cent of them continued to lose money (excluding potential capital gains) — on average declaring a net rental loss of $1,352. However, that loss shrank from $1,623 the previous year when 60 per cent of landlords had greater expenses than rental income, and it is likely to have reduced further since then, as mortgage interest rates have fallen dramatically. The ATO's data suggest that, while rental deductions remained broadly the same as the previous financial year, landlords enjoyed a slight increase in rental income, narrowing their collective losses.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-08/tax-stats-ato-millionaire…
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents, Tax.Borrowing to fund a land-lease community home comes of age
Rachel Lane The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)For retirees looking to move into a land-lease community – where you buy a home and lease the land on which it sits – borrowing can be expensive, if not almost impossible. Enter Land Lease Home Loans, a new financier headed up by Andrew Ralph, formerly of ANZ Health, which entered the market recently. The company provides loans of up to $400,000 for people wanting to downsize their existing home and move into a land-lease community. There are two main products available: (1) A principal-and-interest mortgage where borrowers can access up to 40 per cent of the value of the land-lease home over a maximum of 15 years, with an interest rate of between 4.95 per cent a year and 5.3 per cent, depending on the loan term. (2) A reverse mortgage which enables people over the age of 65 to borrow up to 15 per cent and those over 75 to borrow up to 25 per cent of the property value at an interest rate of 5.5 per cent a year, without the need to make a repayment until the property is sold.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/borrowing-to-f…
# Australia, Land lease communities.Focus on housing
Cassie McCullagh ABC (No paywall)This episode of Focus is all about housing, and from around 7 mins and 30 seconds in, you can hear from Leo Patterson-Ross, CEO of the Tenants' Union of NSW, about what's going on for NSW renters. After this, from around the 19 minute mark, there's a very informative piece from Mark Khoo from WelcomeMat which is an independent digital platform that matches people eligible for Affordable Rental housing with providers and properties.
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/sydney/programs/focus/focus/13369208
# TUNSW in the media, Audio NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market, Tax.Sadiq Khan aims to help social landlords with £10bn ‘retrofit revolution’
James Wilmore Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The Innovation Partnership scheme will give housing associations access to a “high-quality supply chain of solution providers for deep and whole-house retrofits”, a spokesperson for the London mayor’s office told Inside Housing. The scheme is open to social housing providers across the UK and could see around £10bn worth of retrofit works carried out, according to the mayor’s office. Around £5bn of this would be spent in the capital. ... Housing associations themselves have been making efforts to collaborate on addressing the challenges around retrofitting. In April, five large landlords – including Hyde and Sanctuary – agreed a partnership to improve the energy efficiency of homes and develop decarbonisation solutions.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/sadiq-khan-aims-to-hel…
# International, Public and community housing, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change.Housing crisis: Resilience of people living in bad conditions is remarkable, but cultural change is needed
Daniel Hewitt (No paywall)From United Kingdom ... Every week, I visit people living in homes with leaks, mould, damp, overcrowding, holes in the ceilings, rodent problems: conditions their landlords (whether housing association, council or private) wouldn’t tolerate for their families for a single day. (ITV News)
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-06-04/housing-crisis-resilience-of…
# Audio International, Public and community housing, Rent, Repairs, Utilities electricity water gas, Health, Housing market, Mould.Cut of £40m in help for tenants will ‘drive up homelessness’
Chaminda Jayanetti The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The government is cutting the funding it gives to councils in England and Wales to help struggling tenants by more than a fifth, with critics warning the move will drive up homelessness following the recent end of the Covid evictions ban and the end of the furlough scheme in September. ... A spokesperson for tenants’ union Acorn said: “This cut to the DHP pot couldn’t come at a worse time. This will undoubtedly lead to more people needlessly ending up on the streets because they can’t pay their rent, and the emergency safety net that is supposed to help in this scenario will have been gutted.”
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jun/06/cut-of-40m-in-help…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Solar micro-grid helping public-housing residents save money
Alexandra Alvaro ABC (No paywall)For many people like Carol Johansen, living on a budget is a fact of life. ... She is now living in one of five two-bedroom, local-council-operated, public-housing units in Nubeena, in southern Tasmania. The units are part of pilot program run by not-for-profit group Tasman Peninsula Power (TPP), which has set up what it says is the state's first micro-grid. ... A micro-grid is a small power network that can run independently of the state's main grid. Power generated by the network's solar panels goes either directly into the houses or into a nearby centralised battery for storage.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-06/solar-micro-grid-helping-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Utilities electricity water gas.