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
NSW moving too slowly on rental reforms
Inner West Council Mirage News (No paywall)With the housing affordability and rental crisis deepening by the day, the NSW Government is not acting urgently enough to enact new renter's rights and provide support to tenants. Almost a year since the government was elected, their commitments to end no-fault evictions, strengthen legislative protections for renters, and introduce a portable bonds scheme have yet to be delivered.
https://www.miragenews.com/nsw-moving-too-slowly-on-rental-refor…
# Hot topic NSW, .NSW state-wide housing projects update
Kody Cook Council Magazine (No paywall)The New South Wales Government is undertaking a number of initiatives to build new homes across the state and reduce the impact of the housing crisis. In New South Wales, housing affordability and availability are at their lowest levels in decades. Even though New South Wales has the largest population, it is last on the east coast when it comes to housing completion. Building approvals and construction activity have slowed while build costs have skyrocketed. Rental vacancies are low and there are more than 55,000 people on the waitlist for social housing.
https://councilmagazine.com.au/nsw-state-wide-housing-projects-u…
# Hot topic, Research alert NSW, .Pensioners left behind as Australia's rental crisis drags on
Miriah Davis 9 News (No paywall)As Sydney's housing crisis continues to spiral out of control, older renters in a town just a five-hour drive north-west of the city feel they have been left behind. Nearly half of Annemarie King's fortnightly aged pension will go towards rent on her two-bedroom unit in South Tamworth when her lease is renewed in December. The 69-year-old received written notice from her real estate agent that she will have to pay an extra $45 a week to bring her rent in line with the current market, meaning her rent will increase from $235 per week to $280.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/pensioners-left-behind-as-aust…
# NSW, Discrimination.A Landlord Has Been Charged With Not Installing A Fire Alarm After A Blaze Killed Five Children
George Shiers Pedestrian (No paywall)A 61-year-old landlord has been accused of failing to install legally required smoke alarms after a house fire killed a father and five children. The Russell Island home in Queensland burned down on 6th August 2023, killing 34-year-old Wayne Godinet and his children. The children included three boys aged three, 11, and 10 and a pair of four-year-old twins. The children’s mother and another woman were also in the home but managed to escape.
https://buff.ly/4bNjyk8?fbclid=IwAR0Tdhy_E5u6gZMxkXYZiw_3hLMnRHS…
# Australia, Repairs, Security and safety.More 'rich' households are renting, and low-income renters are struggling to compete
Gareth Hutchens ABC (No paywall)If you're a renter this won't surprise you. But if you haven't rented for decades, you may struggle to believe it. Over the past 25 years, the share of high income households living in the private rental market has tripled in Australia. In 1996, high income households accounted for 8 per cent of private renters; now they account for 24 per cent. The share of private rental stock that's affordable for Australia's lowest income renters has fallen from 60 per cent to just 13 per cent.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-25/more-rich-households-rent…
# Research alert Australia, Rent.Very broken housing system’: More high-income earners stuck in rent trap
Melissa Heagney-Bayliss The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)More people earning a higher income are caught in a rental trap as house prices soar, unless they have the help of the bank of mum and dad to break into the property market. Almost a quarter of Australia’s renting households were earning a household income of $140,000 and above by 2021. Only 8 per cent of renting households earned that high an income in 1996.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/very-broken-housing-system-…
# Australia, Rent.Victorian social housing tenant disputes surge, despite government's $5.3b investment
Jesse Thompson ABC (No paywall)At first, the two-bedroom flat was a safety net that broke Charlotte Bannister's fall on hard times. After a relationship breakdown, full-time custody of her daughter had made it difficult to find an affordable rental on Melbourne's private market. Public housing filled the gap, and she felt lucky to be handed the keys to the Ascot Vale flat less than a year after applying. But as she looked up at her former home about two years later, the 30-year-old was only reminded of the trouble she said had marred her new chapter.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-25/victoria-public-social-ho…
# Australia, Public and community housing.How has the cost of living impacted renters (Results Survey)
rent.com.au (No paywall)90% of Aussie renters have changed how they shop to cut costs at home. In its national February survey, Rent.com.au asked renters to consider the impact the rising cost of living is having on their household budgets and spending habits – and importantly what are they doing about it.
https://www.rent.com.au/blog/results-survey-5-how-has-the-cost-o…
# Research alert Australia, .