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
Renters using Facebook Marketplace to find property risk 'disturbing tactics' and scams
Gemma Ferguson ABC (No paywall)When Sarah* secured a sizeable south-east Queensland property for a bargain price on Facebook Marketplace, she had no idea of the nightmare that would follow. Less than two months after moving in, she was woken by strangers knocking on her door at 11pm. "They looked for multiple entrances to get into the property," she said. "The next day, the people came back again." It all began when a paperwork error led her to renting a four-bedroom house with a study, two patios and a spacious garage for just $115 a week in Springfield Lakes, west of Brisbane. The 30-year-old US national found the vacancy on social media and, after facing Sydney's competitive rental market, was planning to share it with a housemate.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-19/qld-facebook-marketplace-…
# Hot topic Australia, Security and safety.As 190,000 households wait for social housing, application numbers are only increasing
Josh Nicholas The Guardian (No paywall)Almost 190,000 households are stuck on social housing waiting lists amid Australia’s housing crisis, according to Guardian Australia analysis of state and territory data. In December there were about 60,000 applications for social housing in Victoria and 57,000 in New South Wales. Queensland had more than 22,000 applications and Western Australia more than 19,000. Smaller states and territories including the Northern Territory, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory had more than 5,000, 4,000 and 3,000 applications respectively. In March South Australia had more than 15,000 social housing applications.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2024/apr/18/as-1…
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Rent.Bed bugs and cockroaches: the legal battle over conditions in a Melbourne community housing block
Benita Kolovos The Guardian (No paywall)First, there were cockroaches. Then bed bugs. Then came the anger. After years of battling pest infestations at a once-celebrated community housing block just outside Melbourne’s CBD, resident Jack Kramme says he’s had enough. “Initially, I was so grateful to have a secure place to live so I really didn’t care what was going on,” he tells Guardian Australia. “But, to be frank, I’m getting too old for this shit.” After a four-year battle, the 36-year-old has had a win in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Vcat), where it was found his housing provider, Unison, had breached its obligations to keep the Elizabeth Street apartment building in good repair.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/19/elizabeth…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Repairs.Housing Minister John Carey defends social housing eviction record as Supreme Court action launched
Jake Dietsch The West (No paywall)Housing Minister John Carey has defended the Government’s record on social housing evictions as a Supreme Court action challenging the Department of Communities’ ability to evict public housing tenants without grounds begins. The court action — launched Friday by legal centres Circle Green and SCALES on behalf of tenants facing eviction — seeks to bar the Department from issuing no-fault termination notices for tenants in public housing. One of the cases concerns Aboriginal man Barry Garlett, who is arguing his no-grounds eviction denied him “procedural fairness” and therefore his termination notice is invalid.
https://thewest.com.au/news/court-justice/housing-minister-john-…
# Australia, Rent.Build-to-rent increases pressure for law reform to underpin new housing
Carolyn Cummins The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)Build-to-rent developers and industry policymakers are applying the blowtorch on all layers of government to get legislative reform for the burgeoning sector strong enough to attract much-needed investment. While the planned reforms are still being refined, build-to-rent projects are being touted as going a long way to help alleviate the housing shortage. The multifamily sector, as it’s known overseas, is still in its infancy in Australia and has become a sought-after asset class globally. Developers such as Mirvac, Lendlease, Greystar and Novus are active in the Australian market where they build apartment towers and rent the units instead of selling.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/build-to-rent-ups-pres…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Does ‘virtue signaling’ pay off for entrepreneurs? We studied 81,799 Airbnb listings to find out
Jacob A. Waddingham, Jeff Chandler & Marcus Wolfe The Conversation (No paywall)The next time you’re searching through Airbnb listings, you may find there’s more to consider than just amenities and price. To stand out from the competition, some Airbnb hosts tout their personal values – such as integrity, empathy and conscientiousness – in listings for their properties. This sort of display has been called “virtue signaling.” Although the phrase can be derisive, we’re using it here as a neutral description of a business tactic: Virtue signalling happens when a business entity communicates to a target audience that it has a purpose beyond providing a service for profit.
https://theconversation.com/does-virtue-signaling-pay-off-for-en…
# Hot topic International, Rent.‘Urban form’ and the housing crisis: Can streets and buildings make a neighbourhood more affordable?
Cem S. Kayatekin & Lorenzo Uribe Sanmiguel The Conversation (No paywall)As of 2007, most humans live in cities. Though this is a relatively recent trend, many of our settlements contain street, block, and building patterns that have developed over centuries. These patterns – which collectively make up what we call “urban form” – are far from a neutral backdrop: they influence who lives where, what businesses find footholds in which locations, and what makes some areas more diverse than others. “Bottom-up” and “top-down” are terms which are often used to pin down the two ends of the vast range of urban form. Bottom-up refers to neighborhoods which develop naturally and gradually, without a strict masterplan guiding their development. Top-down, on the other hand, refers to urban form that is designed by singular authors, with much tighter controls over, and ideals around, how it should develop over time.
https://theconversation.com/urban-form-and-the-housing-crisis-ca…
# Must read International, .The Towns Outsmarting Airbnb
Corey Buhay Reasons to be Cheerful (No paywall)Late last year, New York City made headlines when it all but banned Airbnbs and other short-term rentals within city limits. Since the pandemic, Airbnb had overtaken an estimated 39,000 rental units, hollowing out neighborhoods and causing already-high rents to grow even higher.
“You would see tourists on the streets in neighborhoods where there weren’t any hotels,” recalls New York-based artist and activist Murray Cox. The sound of rolling suitcases could be heard at all hours. Once tight-knit communities began to feel lifeless. When Cox ran the numbers on his own neighborhood — Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn — he found about 1,000 listings. Cox also heard horror stories from other parts of the city. “People would move into a building and then find that the building was full of tourists day in and day out,” he says. “In some cases, they would be so uncomfortable they’d feel forced to leave.”
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/the-towns-outsmarting-airbnb/
# Hot topic International, Rent.