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
What tenancy protections are available for renters after the moratorium ends?
(No paywall)As Australia transitions out of the COVID-19 emergency period and moratoriums come to an end, several measures remain to support tenants and landlords. We’ve rounded up the key changes and financial support measures for each state and territory to help you navigate this period. (rent.com.au)
# Must read Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Rental stress and evictions
Elle Marsh (Paywall)As moratoriums that barred landlords from evicting tenants during the pandemic come to an end across the country, housing experts fear a homelessness crisis is looming. (The Saturday Paper)
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/2021/04/03/ren…
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.How do we fix the UK housing crisis?
Hilary Osborne, Pamela Duncan and Lydia McMullan The Guardian (No paywall)Lindsay Judge, research director at the Resolution Foundation thinktank, ... describes the private rental sector as the “‘wild west’ of Britain’s housing stock” and the Resolution Foundation says it should be professionalised. The thinktank suggests policy should be “moving to indefinite tenancies, and creating a tenants’ loans system to tackle the mounting arrears crisis without causing mass evictions”. ... “The economic fallout from the pandemic has left millions of families worried about paying rent,” says Darren Baxter, housing policy and partnerships manager at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation thinktank. “The government should immediately introduce a targeted package of grants to support renters in arrears, ensuring that they can stay in their homes.” [Read the full article]
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/apr/01/how-do-we-fix-t…
# International, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing market, Tax.Tenants in flood-affected areas face rent hikes amid shortage
Nila Sweeney (Paywall)The floods of last month across NSW may have receded in the affected areas, but the pain is just starting for a lot of renters. An analysis conducted by Suburbstrend.com found the NSW rental markets that were most impacted were already tightening dramatically before the flooding, as strong demand from tenants moving away from the CBD outpaced available rentals. ... “Many renters in these regions have already been under immense pressure before the floods as a result of the great city exodus,” said Kent Lardner, director of Suburbtrends.com. “So even a small number of people displaced by floods will now be actively looking for rental homes, which will tip many of these markets into a crisis point, especially for low income families.” ... Among the areas that were hardest hit include Port Stephens, Port Macquarie, Maitland, Taree and Lake Macquarie, where vacancies have fallen to about 0.2 per cent. The current shortage of available rentals in the region has prompted landlords and property managers to become more picky when choosing their tenants ... (Australian Financial Review)
https://www.afr.com/property/residential/tenants-in-flood-affect…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Bubble or boom? Why ultra-low interest rates mean house prices may never bust
Martin Farrer The Guardian (No paywall)It’s hard to disagree with the New Zealand government’s recent assessment that the country’s runaway housing market has moved from mere boom to a bubble that endangers the whole economy. Prices rose a staggering 23% over the past year, putting home ownership way beyond most people not already on the fabled ladder – younger, first-time buyers especially. If it walks like a bubble and talks like a bubble, then it must be a bubble, right? The only problem is that bubbles might not be what they used to be. House prices are being steadily inflated in many other developed economies such as the US and UK. In Australia, prices rose 2.8% in March, the fastest monthly growth for 33 years. But governments are in no hurry to copy Jacinda Ardern’s canary in the coalmine moment, as the renowned Société Générale economist and market sceptic Albert Edwards has dubbed it, and instruct central banks to make dampening prices part of monetary policy.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/apr/05/bubble-or-boom-why…
# Hot topic International, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.House of pain: property pressure builds as investors get back in the game
Noel Towell The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Katrina Raynor teaches and researches housing affordability at one of Australia’s most prestigious universities, but has given up, for now, on the dream of a home of her own in Melbourne. The prospects for the academic, and for the tens of thousands of other young Australians dreaming of getting a foot on the property ladder, grew bleaker this week with news the nation’s house prices were rising faster than at any time in the past 30 years and Melbourne’s median house price was nudging $860,000. ... More ominous news for would-be owner-occupiers emerged on Thursday as the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed the firmest evidence yet that property investors are coming back in force after retreating from the market last year.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/house-of-pain-proper…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Housing scandal: ITV News uncovers widespread problems with leaks, damp and mould in tower blocks across UK
Daniel Hewitt (No paywall)Families across the UK are being forced to live in damp, dangerous and mould-infested council flats with little chance of escape, an ITV News investigation has found. (ITV)
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-03-31/housing-scandal-itv-news-unc…
# Video International, Public and community housing, Health, Minimum habitability standards, Mould.Maree needed domestic violence payments to flee her abuser, but she wasn't eligible for it
Rhiana Whitson ABC (No paywall)When Maree left her abusive ex-husband, she knew her safety depended on moving to a new house. He had been charged with assault, breached an apprehended violence order, and returned to the house once to threaten her. But when she needed to find $1,100 to pay for the bond at her new rental property, she was shocked to learn that she did not qualify for crisis support payments.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-02/domestic-violence-support…
# NSW, Bond, Domestic violence, Rent, Federal Government, State Government, Women.