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
700,000 renters hit with unfair eviction notices during pandemic
Dan Wilson Craw (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... One in 12 private renters has been given notice to move out without a reason since March 2020, a new poll by Survation reveals today. The survey, commissioned by us, indicates that as many as 694,000 private tenants have been served with a Section 21 notice during the pandemic, which allows landlords to evict tenants without needing a reason. (Generation Rent) Read the same story at: [https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/one-in-12-private-renters-served-no-fault-eviction-notice-during-pandemic-survey-finds-70397].
# International, Rent, No-grounds evictions.Mascot Towers owners urged to sell as developers express interest in demolishing beleaguered block
Ursula Malone ABC (No paywall)Owners of apartments in the troubled Mascot Towers building have been advised it is no longer financially viable to fix the building and that their best option is to sell up. ... Chair of the Mascot Towers Owners Corporation Gary Deigan told the ABC: "The only solution in our mind is to sell the building off. We have lost a lot of money. We have to decide whether we are going to continue to lose money or try to recover some."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-15/mascot-towers-owners-urge…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Fuelling the property fire? The stir-crazy Australians seeking better homes and gardens
Polly Dunning The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)In March last year, when the apocalypse seemed upon us (fire, flood and plague, anyone?) and the most stable investment opportunity appeared to be 48 rolls of 4-ply, economists predicted a rapid collapse of housing prices. ... But, one year on, prices are in fact rising at the fastest rate in 32 years. ... This is why house prices are rising much faster than apartment prices ... apartments are great when you’re out of the house at work all day and strapped for time – they’re easy to maintain, and tend to be close to local amenities. But when you’re stuck in them for long periods, especially with little kids, well, frankly, they suck.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/fuelling-the-property-fire-the-s…
# Australia, Housing market.Housing shortage, fire impact and COVID-19 creating employment nightmare in NSW, inquiry hears
Kelly Fuller ABC (No paywall)The first regional hearing of the Senate's job security inquiry has heard calls for continued employment support for bushfire-affected areas and evidence about the dilemma of finding and keeping work during the housing shortage crisis.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-15/south-coast-job-security-…
# NSW, Housing market, Regional NSW.It’s not what you earn, but what your parents have that truly counts
Torsten Bell The Guardian (No paywall)New work from the London School of Economics shows that whether your parents were homeowners became more important between 2000 and 2015 in determining whether you managed to get on to the property ladder. Resolution Foundation research found that, in the 1990s, 30-year-olds whose parents had property were twice as likely to be homeowners as those whose parents did not, but from the mid-2000s they were three times as likely.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/18/its-not-wh…
# International, Families, Housing market.Infrastructure struggling to keep pace with growth in Western Sydney's urban sprawl
Kathleen Calderwood and Lori Youmshajekian ABC (No paywall)Gurnek Singh purchased a home in the outer suburbs to find space and an affordable home for his young family. But after three years living in Austral, about an hour's drive from Sydney's CBD, there are still no local parks nearby, the public school is at capacity and a piece of land earmarked for a public high school has been sold to a private college. ... Mr Singh's experience is playing out in new suburbs across Australia, where key infrastructure is struggling to keep up with rapid housing growth. But Sydney has felt the growing pains for longer.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-18/western-sydney-urban-spra…
# NSW, Housing market, Planning and development, State Government.Perth’s rental prices the highest in six years as vacancy rates continue to fall
Heather McNeill The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Perth rentals are at their highest asking prices in almost six years with the median house costing $430 a week – the biggest yearly increase across the country.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/perth-s-rental…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.‘End this nightmare’: Mascot Tower owners call for resolution ahead of possible sale
Laura Chung The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Almost two years after Mascot Towers in Sydney’s south was evacuated, the beleaguered building could sell for up to $42.5 million depending on how quickly owners can agree to the sale terms. ... The future of the building will be decided at an extraordinary general meeting in about two weeks when owners will vote on the preferred outcome. ... “We are still pushing for the collective sale of the building,” Mascot Towers Owners Corporation chairman Gary Deigan said. “We are standing in a bucket of shit. What matters is how deep it is and we make the decision to get out of it.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/end-this-nightmare-mascot-to…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.