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Tenants’ guide to tax reform

Housing affordability is a key issue during the 2016 federal election. The presumed impact of reducing tax concessions for landlords has been a strong feature in media discussions, and in commentary from political parties and candidates. Most of these focus on the cost of housing to buy.

But how do negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts affect the private rental market?
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The rent (assistance) is too damn low

The rent in Sydney is so high now that even historic pockets of affordability are way out of reach for people doing it tough. We might have been able to rely on public or social housing if supply had kept pace with the growing population, but it didn't.
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Happy anniversary, Residential Tenancies Act - part 4

Six years ago today the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 became part of the law of New South Wales.

Part of the deal was that it must be reviewed after five years, to see whether its policy objectives remain valid, and its terms remain appropriate.

This statutory review of the Act commenced in late October 2015, with NSW Fair Trading inviting interested parties to contribute via a public discussion paper. They received in excess of 200 submissions - many of them from tenants. We produced our own submission, and have discussed it quite a bit on the Brown Couch as well.
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State Budget 2016: extra duties for foreign purchasers

Announcements on new spending and policy are already finding their way out of Macquarie Street. One matter of some interest to tenants - and more than a few landlords, we bet - concerns changes to stamp duty payable by foreign purchasers.
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NSW Budget: Social Housing funding

The Government will officially hand down the budget today, but much that will be of interest to us on the Brown Couch has already been revealed.
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Park resident advocate announced local woman of the year

Christina
Residential park resident advocate Christina Steel was recently announced as Port Stephens ‘Local Woman of the Year’ by the Port Stephens MP Kate Washington. Christina is the president of the Port Stephens Park Residents Association and a long term and valued member of the Tenants’ Union Residential Parks Forum.
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Recently at NCAT

NCAT
Since the commencement of the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013 on 1 November 2015 we have been keeping an eye on decisions coming out of NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) to see how the various provisions are being interpreted. In this issue of Outasite Lite we report on an unpublished decision concerning assignment.
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Is age just a number?

communities
Julie Lee, Tenants' Union Residential Parks Officer, reflects on the response she gave when recently delivering an information session to park residents about the new Act, when asked a question about a term of the site agreement restricting the sale of homes to people over a certain age.
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A win for park residents in court

Outasite Lite article
Two permanent residents of Homestead Holiday Park (Gennacker Pty Ltd) on the Tweed River have finally won a lengthy court battle against their park owner. The park owner had given them a no-grounds notice of termination in 2012, and claimed the residents were not covered by the Residential Parks Act 1998 (then in force). The park owner argued instead that they were covered by the Holiday Parks (Long Term Casual Occupation) Act 2002. This would have left the residents facing immediate eviction.
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Celebrating women advocates

Janice and Christina
Because 8 March is International Women’s Day we thought that the March issue of Outasite Lite should celebrate some of the amazing women who live in residential parks in NSW. We talked with six women who are active within their own communities and in residential parks more broadly. None of the women moved into a residential park with the intention of becoming a resident representative or advocate but a particular event or situation triggered something in each of them that led to them becoming leaders in their communities.
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