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
Half of all renters fear for the future despite eviction ban extension
Kate Hughes (Paywall)Half of all UK renters worry that their housing circumstances are now unstable, despite moves by the government to prevent evictions during lockdown. (Independent)
https://www.independent.co.uk/money/eviction-arrears-rent-housin…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Gross Estate
Mandy Nolan (No paywall)Last week in Byron a house that doesn’t yet exist hit the market for $60 million. A beach front holiday house. A tidy little weekender. The buyer will purchase a drawing of the house that is yet to materialise. It’s not even a home. It’s for holidays. A holiday from what? Makes me want to puke. We should all be appalled. This sort of wealth should not be celebrated. (Echo NetDaily)
https://www.echo.net.au/2021/01/mandy-nolans-soapbox-gross-estat…
# Australia, Housing market, Regional NSW.Responsible lending: Consumer groups warn against moves to make it easier to get a home loan
Kate Burke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Overhauling responsible lending laws while the value of new home loans is at a record high will do more harm than good, consumer groups warn, creating a greater risk for borrowers and the economy while offering little reward. Plans to unwind responsible lending laws were announced by federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg last September, in a bid to increase the flow of credit to households and businesses as Australia’s economy looks to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/responsible-lending-consumer-grou…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.'No time to waste': Biden unveils $1.9tn coronavirus stimulus package
Maanvi Singh The Guardian (No paywall)In the United States ... Biden has also called on lawmakers to extend a national eviction moratorium, which expires on 31 January. Housing advocates have been pressing Biden to extend and bolster a federal ban on evictions in recent weeks and months, and they have asked him to additionally include funds for rental assistance in relief proposals. His current plan includes $30bn in rental and utility assistance for those struggling to pay bills. Advocates are also asking Congress to cancel any rent or mortgage debt incurred during the pandemic.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/14/joe-biden-corona…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.The Sydney suburbs where rents fell the most: Domain Rent Report
Kate Burke Domain (Paywall)Renters have made huge savings across a swathe of sought-after suburbs in inner Sydney, with median rents falling by hundreds of dollars a week in some top neighbourhoods. Median rents across 57 suburbs dropped by 10 per cent or more over the year to December, new figures show, with many of the largest percentage drops for units in the city centre and eastern suburbs. ... [But] “We are still getting a lot of people calling,” said chief executive [of the Tenants' Union of NSW] Leo Patterson Ross. “People having to move either because they’re being evicted or because of affordability issues — partly because of JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments dropping partly because of the influx of renters into a lot of fringe and regional areas.”
https://www.domain.com.au/news/the-sydney-suburbs-where-rents-fe…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Defunded Tenants' Union ACT could be no more
Cassandra Morgan Canberra Times (Paywall)Tenants' Union ACT is coming to terms with the prospect it might not survive much longer as an independent organisation. The territory government put the legal advice service to tender in late 2019. The union lost out to Legal Aid ACT and was stripped of its government funding, which it had depended on for more than 25 years. Since the union shut its doors in February last year, it has continued on as a volunteer organisation ...
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7073954/really-sad-defund…
# Must read Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services.Asking people to prepare for fire is pointless if they can’t afford to do it. It’s time we subsidised fire prevention
David Bowman The Conversation (No paywall)In the lead up to every bushfire season, the mantra is the same each year: prepare, prepare, prepare. Remove the fuel load. Clean out the gutters. Mow lawns, tidy gardens, create a burnbreak between bushland and your house. Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Have a plan. After 40 years studying the interaction between humans and fire, I have seen this mantra rolled out every year — and watched, every year, as it is comprehensively ignored by large numbers of people. Why? Because they are bad or lazy? No. The fact is asking people to prepare for fire is pointless if they can’t afford to do it. Read more ...
https://theconversation.com/asking-people-to-prepare-for-fire-is…
# Hot topic Australia, .Fears over NSW social housing sell-off
Joseph Lam The Australian (Paywall)Nearly $2.7bn worth of social housing in NSW has been sold off over the past nine financial years without any substantial change in the state's waiting list for government-subsidised accommodation. New figures obtained by The Australian reveal the state government sold as many as 3954 properties from 2011 to 2020. ...[Regarding Millers Point, Dr Chris Martin from the University of NSW's City Futures Research Centre] said: " ... while money generated from the Millers Point sale had been reinvested in social housing, the government had yet to make headway into its long waiting lists. ... This strategy of cannibalising the social housing stock — that's not a sustainable strategy”.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/fears-over-nsw-…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing, State Government.