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
Lendlease strikes $460m deal with Aware Super for retirement living
Carolyn Cummins The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Lendlease has extended its partnership with the country’s largest super fund in a deal to sell a 25 per cent stake in the retirement living business, estimated to be worth about $460 million. Aware Super will now have a stake in 75 retirement villages that are home to more than 16,000 residents across the country.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/lendlease-strikes-460m…
# Australia, Housing market, International, Older people.Rent debt crisis 'could lead to homelessness'
Simon Read BBC (No paywall)Half a million renters could lose their home without financial help, debt charities, lenders and landlords have warned. These renters are under pressure from debt they've built up since the pandemic.
# International, Eviction, Coronavirus COVID-19.450,000 families ‘behind on rent because of Covid’
BBC (No paywall)Almost half a million UK families are thought to have fallen behind on rent, as a result of the coronavirus crisis, according to the Resolution Foundation. It said more than 750,000 had been behind on housing costs last month. That is 450,000 more than January 2020. "Despite widespread calls for forbearance in the face of the Covid-19 shock, just 3% of private renting families have been able to negotiate a lower rent over the last 10 months," the think tank said in a report.
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.‘Likely a Death Sentence’: Officials Fear Cold Weather Is Greater Risk for Homeless Than Virus
John Eligon The New York Times (No paywall)For weeks after he opened a daytime shelter for the homeless, Jae Bennett was fairly rigid about the building’s 37-person capacity. The last thing he wanted was for a lapse in social distancing to cause the deadly coronavirus to spread among a population in which many people were in frail health. But then temperatures in Kansas City, Mo., plunged into the single digits a little more than a week ago and stayed there, the coldest arctic blast of the season. And Mr. Bennett looked into the eyes of people waiting outside because the squat, brown building was full. “I said, ‘Screw it, just come in,’”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/14/us/coronavirus-homeless-cold-…
# Must read International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Housing justice for older people in NSW – Pre-Budget Submission 2021-22
(No paywall)The Ageing on the Edge New South Wales Forum is calling on the NSW Government to deliver 5,000 additional social housing dwellings, improve access of older people to appropriate social and affordable housing, establish a state-wide housing information and support service for older people, increase security of tenure for renters, extend the eviction moratorium during the COVID-19 pandemic and expand rent support to impacted tenants. (haag)
https://www.oldertenants.org.au/publications/housing-justice-for…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Older people, Welfare.If Labor is ‘on your side’, it shouldn’t dump its plan to limit negative gearing
Joel Dignam The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Last week, my housemates and I got a notice terminating our lease because the owner wants to sell. Our share house has been my home for just over 12 months; another housemate has lived here for seven years. But we’re going to lose our home because to somebody else, it’s just an asset. ... With an eviction looming, I’ve begun looking for a new place to live. Wherever I end up, that property might be a barrister’s plan to have a comfortable retirement, a surgeon’s strategy to pay less tax, or a stockbroker’s passive income stream. But whatever it might mean to the owner and their accountant, it will be my home.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/if-labor-is-on-your-side-it-shou…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Housing market, Tax.Port Stephens homelessness rate sparks fear of tent city
Liz Farquhar ABC (No paywall)A New South Wales coastal town has run out of options when it comes to finding a roof for its most vulnerable residents, a homelessness service says.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-16/homelessness-rates-spike-…
# NSW, Homelessness, Housing market, Regional NSW.Rising prices, plummeting rents
Peter Mares (No paywall)Australia’s housing market goes crazy — again. ... The agent’s indicative guide had the apartment selling for between $630,000 and $680,000. My friend, who didn’t come down in the last shower, had come prepared to pay about $100,000 more. But I didn’t even get to raise my finger on her behalf, because a clutch of other determined buyers quickly pushed the price up to $845,000. ... Meanwhile, just seventy-five minutes’ drive away in Torquay, on Victoria’s surf coast, you can’t find a place to rent for love or money. The vacancy rate there is officially zero.
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing market.