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
Oh no: one landlord is set to own all of Christchurch by the year 2053
Hayden Donnell (No paywall)[Ana Meredith] has 10 houses now. She wants 25 by 2025. She is a collapsing star, sucking property after property into the black void of her gravitational field, and spitting them out in return for positive cash yields. Read on ... (The Spinoff)
https://thespinoff.co.nz/money/07-02-2021/oh-no-one-landlord-is-…
# International, Landlords and agents.Pandemic’s Toll on Housing: Falling Behind, Doubling Up
Conor Dougherty The New York Times (No paywall)From United States ... As the pandemic enters its second year, millions of renters are struggling with a loss of income and with the insecurity of not knowing how long they will have a home. Their savings depleted, they are running up credit card debt to make the rent, or accruing months of overdue payments. Families are moving in together, offsetting the cost of housing by finding others to share it. The nation has a plague of housing instability that was festering long before Covid-19, and the pandemic’s economic toll has only made it worse. Now the financial scars are deepening and the disruptions to family life growing more severe, leaving a legacy that will remain long after mass vaccinations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/06/business/economy/housing-inse…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Landlords who threatened to quit rental market over tenancy law changes all bark and no bite
Mikaela Wilkes (No paywall)From New Zealand ... A threatened stampede of landlords leaving the residential property market has failed to eventuate. The Residential Tenancies Amendment Act (RTAA) passes into law on February 11. Under the new law, landlords can no longer issue 90-day ‘no cause’ termination notices and fixed term tenancies will automatically roll over to periodic tenancies on expiry unless otherwise agreed. Rent increases have been limited to once a year, rental bidding has been outlawed, and landlords have to allow tenants to make minor alterations (such as baby-proofing, hanging pictures, and earthquake proofing) to their rental. (Stuff)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/renting/124054302/landl…
# Must read, New policy announcement International, Eviction, Rent, Landlords and agents, No-grounds evictions.The Housing Cliff
Justin Agrelo and others (No paywall)From the United States ... Experts say an eviction avalanche is coming. But thousands of Chicago renters have already been pushed to the brink of the housing cliff. (City Bureau)
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Personal stories.Australia’s incipient eviction crisis: No going back
Chris Martin (No paywall)Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia was facing an incipient eviction crisis, the gravity of which had been obscured by inadequate data and the gradual mounting of systemic problems of unaffordability and insecurity. This article reviews the legal framework around tenancies and evictions and the sparse data it produces. Tribunal data obtained by the author shows that Australia’s two largest jurisdictions had, prior to the pandemic, a termination application rate somewhat more than half that of the US ‘crisis’ rate. The article concludes with directions for further research and reforms to address evictions in an enduring way, beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. (Alternative Law Journal)
http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:74126/binc2…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Eviction, Security and safety, Housing affordability.'A failure of society': Britain's slum housing crisis – in pictures
Mee-Lai Stone The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... In the late 1960s the country’s crumbling flats and tenements were causing a breakdown in society. Shelter asked photographer Nick Hedges to document homes unfit for human habitation
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/feb/02/a-f…
# International, History, Housing market.When Jo’s marriage broke down, her hoarding got out of control
Evelyn Lewin The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When Jo got divorced 14 years ago, she walked away from her marriage with next to nothing. The then 43-year-old senior account manager bought a three-bedroom house for herself and her eight-year-old son and set to work furnishing it. But within 12 months, her home was “overflowing”. Read on ...
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/when-jo-s-m…
# Australia, Health, Older people.If you thought the pandemic would bring on an era of affordable housing in Australia - you were wrong
Brigid Delaney The Guardian (No paywall)Australian property is to pandemics what cockroaches are to nuclear war – totally indestructible. And it’s not just the big cities anymore
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/05/if-you-tho…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19.