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
Corporate Landlord Evicts Black Renters At Far Higher Rates Than Whites, Report Finds
Chris Arnold (No paywall)Katrina Chism was frightened and confused. She'd been renting the same house in Atlanta for three years. She's a single mom with a teenage son. But then she lost her customer service job during the coronavirus pandemic and fell a month behind on her rent. "I remember going to the door and the sheriff standing there," Chism says. "It scared me because I didn't know why he was at my house." The reason: Her landlord had filed an eviction case against her. "Once you get that eviction, no one's going to want you to rent from them," Chism says. "I don't want to be in a homeless situation." Getting evicted can send people into a downward financial spiral. During the pandemic, there has been the added danger of catching or spreading the coronavirus. But that hasn't stopped Chism's landlord, a company owned by the private equity investment firm Pretium Partners, from filing what critics say is a lot of eviction cases against people during the pandemic. ... [Private Equity Stakeholder Project] ... has been tracking eviction filings by corporate landlords and, in a report on Pretium, says it has found a racial disparity. ... According to the report, since the beginning of the year, "they're filing to evict residents at rates four times as high in majority-Black counties". (NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/03/1001404416/corporate-landlord-evi…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Race and ethnicity.Powers for Treasurer to intervene in super fund investments scrapped
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The federal government has scrapped controversial plans to let the Treasurer intervene in superannuation funds’ investment decisions to ensure the support of crossbench and Nationals MPs for its proposed changes to the $3.2 trillion sector. The last-minute amendments to the Your Future, Your Super legislation were introduced after Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce slammed the bill on Wednesday over concerns the powers could be used by a future government to block super funds from investing in coal, live exports or gas on “moral” grounds. He said several Nationals MPs held similar concerns. ... Liberal MPs have previously discussed using the powers to shut down industry super lobby groups, *** restrict super funds from investing in housing *** [my emphasis], and intervening on super lobbyists’ advertising activities deemed to oppose government policies.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/powers-for-treasurer-to-…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Housing market.On why it’s so hard to be an inner city greenie lefty sometimes
The Fifth Estate (No paywall)The NSW Productivity Commission’s White Paper, released this week reiterated concerns that Sydney’s housing supply was not keeping up with demand leading to an availability crisis likely to worsen over the coming decade.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/news-from-the-front-desk/o…
# NSW, Housing market, Planning and development.Delay removing dangerous cladding ‘soul destroying’
Sarah Corker & Phil Hendry BBC (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The government will miss a June deadline to complete applications for £5bn of funding to remove flammable cladding in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. ... The ongoing dispute is delaying work to make dangerous buildings safe.
# International, Asbestos, lead, hazardous materials, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Apartment owners suing Sydney developer Toplace over dozens of 'defects' in near new Parramatta buildings
Josh Bavas ABC (No paywall)Apartment owners in a large riverside apartment complex in Parramatta are suing developer Toplace over dozens of alleged defects discovered after the buildings were completed less than three years ago. ... The body corporate claimed more than 40 types of defects were found, including corroding concrete and defective installation of windows, doors, bathtubs and toilets.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-03/parramatta-apartment-owne…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Housing investors to pick up slack as first home buyers retreat: AFG
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)One of the country’s biggest mortgage brokers, AFG, expects property investors will continue returning to the market, helping to fill the gap left by retreating first home buyers.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/housing-inve…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Rental vacancy rates at lowest level in years, but still high in some pockets: Domain data
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Renters in Australia’s biggest cities could find it hard to get a good deal with the number of empty properties falling, but there are some neighbourhoods still offering tenants more choice. ... For Sydney renters, the city’s west offers the most vacant rentals, with 4.6 per cent of properties in the Parramatta region and 4.4 per cent of rentals in the Auburn area untenanted last month. They were among a dozen Sydney regions, mostly covering Sydney’s middle-ring suburbs, which had a vacancy rate above 3 per cent. Meanwhile, the rate in the inner city fell to 2.9 per cent, down from 3.2 per cent in April.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/rental-vacancy-rates-at-lowest-le…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.FEANTSA The 6th Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe 2021
https://www.feantsa.org/en/report/2021/05/12/the-6th-overview-of-housing-exclusion-in-europe-2021?bcParent=27 (No paywall)This new report is an opportunity to shed light on young people who, especially when poor, are worse affected by housing exclusion than the rest of the population, and were so even before the current health crisis. It also takes stock of the wave of poverty affecting all of Europe, more than a year after the start of the pandemic. (International Union of Tenants)
https://www.feantsa.org/en/report/2021/05/12/the-6th-overview-of…
# International, Housing market, Young people.