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
Sydney renter evicted over unmown lawn
Orana Durney-Benson Domain (No paywall)A Sydney renter has been served an eviction notice just days before Christmas, and now fears their family will be left homeless. “I have been in a rental in Sydney for only about 8 weeks and have just been given notice for breach of tenancy, eviction,” they explain on Reddit. The notice states they must be out January 6, they say. According to the anonymous renter, the reason given for the eviction was pets being kept on the premises and an overgrown lawn. “[The lawn] was like that when we moved in and is noted as such on the condition report,” they write.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-renter-evicted-over-unmown…
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Rent.Sydney renter evicted over unmown lawn
Orana Durney-Benson Domain (No paywall)A Sydney renter has been served an eviction notice just days before Christmas, and now fears their family will be left homeless. “I have been in a rental in Sydney for only about 8 weeks and have just been given notice for breach of tenancy, eviction,” they explain on Reddit. The notice states they must be out January 6, they say. According to the anonymous renter, the reason given for the eviction was pets being kept on the premises and an overgrown lawn. “[The lawn] was like that when we moved in and is noted as such on the condition report,” they write.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-renter-evicted-over-unmown…
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Rent.The renters caught in Byron Bay region’s housing crisis: ‘I feel like there’s a fire under my arse’
Royce Kurmelovs The Guardian (No paywall)Bessminda Groves is moving soon. Ever since she learned six months ago that she was likely to have to leave her current place, she has spent every day searching for somewhere new to live in Byron shire’s competitive rental market. “This is just part of what you have to do,” Groves says. “I know how long it takes to get into another space. When having to look, I really feel like there’s a fire under my arse.” According to the 2024 rental affordability index produced by National Shelter and SGS Economics and Planning, Byron Bay is one of the least affordable places to rent in the country, and surrounding towns across the shire on the New South Wales north coast are not much better.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/21/byron-bay…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.NSW government agrees to help save Paddington boarding house if developer will sell
Holly Tregenza ABC (No paywall)The NSW Government has agreed to help foot part of the bill to purchase a boarding house in inner Sydney which is home to 28 vulnerable residents. The offer is dependent on the owner agreeing to sell the property they have plans to redevelop. The two blocks on Selwyn Street in Paddington have been the subject of an ongoing battle after LFD Developments purchased the property, which has been a boarding house for men on a low income since the end of WWII. The developer submitted plans to the City of Sydney to turn the boarding houses into four luxury apartments and the matter is now before the NSW Land and Environment Court.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-23/nsw-paddington-boarding-h…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Rent.The plan to solve Sydney’s housing crisis that had only one application
Michael McGowan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)One of NSW Labor’s signature reforms to boost housing density around train stations netted only a single development application for an extra 16 apartments in 2024, prompting questions over whether the policy would help ease Sydney’s supply crunch. The so-called “tier two” transport oriented development zones, which allow for greater housing density near 37 heavy rail and metro stations, form a key pillar of Chris Minns’ push to ease the housing supply shortage. Despite 18 of the zones being in place since April in parts of Bayside, Cumberland and Ku-ring-gai in Sydney, as well as in Newcastle, Wollongong and Lake Macquarie, property developers are yet to buy in.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/the-plan-to-solve-sydney-s-h…
# Must read NSW, .We are still paying cost of Howard’s housing failure
The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)The 2004 cabinet papers are smoking-gun evidence of Howard and Costello’s wilful and damaging dithering on housing policy (“Why Howard vetoed plan to fix soaring house prices”, January 1). They knew their tax policies were crushing housing affordability and yet with trademark arrogance, they did nothing. A whole generation of younger Australians have already paid a high price for their inaction, and it could take another 20 years to fix the problems Howard and Costello failed to address. Beyond housing, the 2004 cabinet papers are a litany of poor decisions and inaction, which have created decades-long problems for this country and our neighbours.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/we-are-still-paying-cost-of-…
# Hot topic NSW, .‘Keep our curtains drawn’: Residents block social housing for seniors
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)A Liberal state MP has thrown his support behind residents protesting against plans to build a three-storey social housing block for seniors in Sydney’s south and claiming it threatens to devalue their homes and disrupt the ambience of their “peaceful, family oriented neighbourhood”. Oatley MP Mark Coure, who was minister for seniors in the Perrottet government, sent Housing Minister Rose Jackson a petition and letter from Riverwood residents who expressed their “strong opposition” to the proposed 29-unit “high-density senior housing development”.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/keep-our-curtains-drawn-resi…
# Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing.'Heartless': Mia and Evee told of eviction days before Christmas with nowhere to go
Christopher Tan SBS (No paywall)Mia Day and Evee Flores are struggling to find reasons to celebrate this Christmas. Days ago, the pair received a notice of termination for their periodic lease agreement, requiring them to vacate their Perth rental property by 21 February. "That was already one of my worst days," Day told SBS News. "That morning, I got a call from the hospital saying there was nothing more they could do for my dad … and that he likely has only days to weeks to live." Western Australia, NSW, and the Northern Territory are the only jurisdictions where landlords can evict tenants without providing a reason during periodic agreements — leases with a start date but no fixed end date.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/couple-getting-eviction-noti…
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Rent.