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
The campsite causing a backyard bust up between a landlord and tenants.
9 News (No paywall)A Yamba family claim their Christmas has been ruined after their landlord set up camp in the backyard, resulting in anger and sparks flying. They live in the rental with their three kids. The landlord and her partner pitched a tent in the backyard, on Christmas night, and refused to leave ...
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/aussie-renters-come-ho…
# NSW, Privacy and access, Landlords and agents.Tasmanian landlords call for debts to be repaid as COVID rental protections expire
Emily Baker ABC (No paywall)Single mother Jazlin Lovell was evicted from her Hobart home just one week before Christmas. ... Ms Lovell knew she was going to have to move from the property to allow the owners to move in, but the date was unexpectedly brought forward. ... Tasmania's government placed a moratorium on evictions — with some exceptions — until the end of [January]. While renters can be ordered to vacate a property to allow for renovations, the sale of the home or because the home has been used for criminal activity, landlords are not allowed to boot tenants for falling behind on rent until after January 31. The Tenants' Union of Tasmania is arguing that should be extended until March, but a group representing landlords has urged the government to hold firm.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-06/tas-landlords-call-for-de…
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Cancel Debt
Nick Martin (No paywall)From the United States ... The story of the pandemic is also a story about debt. One recent survey, conducted in October, found that more than a quarter of respondents had accumulated over $10,000 in new debts during the crisis. One in three had taken out a new credit card. An analysis from Philadelphia found a 70 percent increase from last year in people paying rent on credit and that, by December, rent-burdened households will owe roughly $7.2 billion in back rent, an average individual burden of $5,400. The crisis of American debt predates the pandemic, but it’s clear that nine months of record unemployment and little relief has sharpened the knife for millions of people ... (The New Republic)
https://newrepublic.com/article/160576/debt-forgiveness-cancel-s…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Government urged to do more to support renters and rough sleepers during latest lockdown
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom, campaigners and housing bodies are urging the government to reinstate the eviction ban and the Everyone In scheme as England enters its third national lockdown in response to the pandemic. ... Generation Rent is urging the government to ban evictions for the duration of the lockdown, which is expected to last until at least 15 February, by closing the courts and suspending bailiff action. ... While possession cases have been heard in courts since they reopened, bailiffs are currently banned from carrying out evictions as part of a ‘Christmas truce’ that was set to run from 11 December until 11 January.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/government-urged-to-do-more…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership.Responding to Callaghan: completing Australia’s retirement income system
Andrew Podger Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)The Retirement Income Review (Callaghan) Report concluded that the Australian retirement income system is effective, sound and its costs are broadly sustainable. While the Review’s terms of reference were ‘to establish a fact base’ rather than make recommendations, the Report has a very clear overall message: that we should now focus on settling the pensions phase of the system, moving on from the focus up until now on the accumulation phase. That is a message many of us have been pressing for several years now.
https://johnmenadue.com/responding-to-callaghan-completing-austr…
# Australia, Federal Government, Older people.Denmark offers homeowners 20-year loans at a fixed interest rate of zero
Frances Schwartzkopff The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Denmark, the country with the longest history of negative central bank rates, is offering homeowners 20-year loans at a fixed interest rate of zero.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/denmark-offe…
# International, Home ownership, Housing market.Outsourcing expertise: Private consultant paid $5.5m for stamp duty reform
Lucy Cormack The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The NSW government has been accused of outsourcing tax reform by paying millions of dollars to a private consultant to help phase out stamp duty in the state's biggest reform in decades. Treasurer Dominic Perrottet in November revealed the plan to replace stamp duty with an annual land tax on new property transactions in his fourth budget ...
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/outsourcing-expertise-privat…
# NSW, Housing market, Tax.'A massive need': Fremantle homeless camp here to stay
Peter de Kruijff The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)From Western Australia ... A volunteer-driven camp for homeless people in the heart of Fremantle will not be shutting down any time soon, according to organisers. Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said the local government wanted to see the site wrapped up in about a week following an emergency meeting between government authorities and service providers on Monday.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/a-massive-need…
# Australia, Homelessness.