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
Landlord exodus forces New Zealand and Portugal to rethink crackdown
Maya Wilson Autzen The Telegraph (UK) (Paywall)Portugal and New Zealand have relaxed landlord laws to encourage buy-to-let investment, in what experts are calling an “important lesson” for Labour...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/buy-to-let/new-zealan…
# International, Eviction, Rent.Australian homes are like “leaky tents” and free solar won’t solve the problem
Anne Delaney One Step off the Grid (No paywall)When Central Coast renter and energy analyst Declan Kelly tried to heat his cold, damp home last winter using a retail plan offering three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day, he was effectively road-testing the federal government’s new Solar Sharers scheme. From mid-next year, Solar Sharers will require every retailer to offer customers a plan with a three-hour free-power window in the middle of the day — a policy designed to help households soak up Australia’s rapidly growing surplus of cheap solar. It’s pitched particularly at renters and people who can’t install PV, giving them access to the benefits of daytime solar without owning panels.
https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/australian-homes-are-like-leaky…
# Australia, Utilities water energy internet.What housing crisis? For most, there isn’t one – but look how the other third live
Kate Shaw The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)This may come as a surprise given the media narrative, but Australia is not in a generalised housing crisis. Two-thirds of the nation’s householders own or are buying their homes – they are by definition not in housing crisis. The 20 per cent who own investment properties are doing just fine. House prices in the past two decades have at least doubled and, depending on location, have increased up to tenfold. Rents are high even with market fluctuations. Australia’s home owners not only have a secure roof over their heads but are accumulating wealth in the process.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/what-housing-crisis-for-most-the…
# Hot topic Australia, .Aussie renter urged to report landlord for 'brushing off' huge property issue
Alison and Jillian Barrett Yahoo News (No paywall)Question: I’m renting a house with a growing list of serious problems: holes in the lounge-room wall, mould and mildew on the ceiling, crackling power points, unstable decking, bowed stairs, a back door that won’t lock, leaking taps — I could go on. My landlord keeps brushing off repairs, but the place feels unsafe and unhealthy to live in. I can't afford anywhere else at the moment, so what rights do I have if the landlord is refusing to fix hazards that are impacting safety and basic living standards?
https://au.news.yahoo.com/aussie-renter-urged-to-report-landlord…
# Australia, Rent, Repairs.Anderson’s Win Settles More than One Dispute on Unfair Contract Terms
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)While new land lease community laws have been in place for over a year prohibiting the use of multiple elements in a fixed method of site fee increase, last year one case challenged the practice under provisions of the Australian Consumer Law. Mr Michael Anderson, a home owner at Kincumber Nautical Village (KNV) moved into the community in early January 2020 and signed a site agreement with a fixed method of increase containing five elements. He recently won his case in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT), making the wait worthwhile and the case an excellent resource for home owners who now have greater clarity around successfully challenging an unfair contract term under Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
https://www.tenants.org.au/thenoticeboard/news/andersons-win-unf…
# NSW, Land lease communities.Not all suburbs are equal: How heatwaves can amplify inequality
Alex Gallagher SBS (No paywall)Parts of the country have been sweltering through a heatwave that's set to continue in Sydney this weekend, with temperatures of around 42C expected on Saturday. But urban heat is not distributed equally. In some parts of Sydney — particularly the western suburbs, where temperatures during heatwaves can be several degrees higher than in the east — the forecast for Saturday is even warmer. The impacts of heat inequality are exacerbated during a heatwave. So why do some suburbs experience that heat more acutely, and can anything be done about it?
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/heatwaves-sydney-vulnerabili…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Utilities water energy internet.Sydney man claims land in harbourside suburb under ‘squatter’s rights’
Michaela Whitbourn The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A home owner in a harbourside Sydney suburb has succeeded in claiming ownership of land next to his property under so-called squatter’s rights. The NSW Supreme Court case is the latest examination of the law of adverse possession, which allows a person to acquire ownership of land in some cases when they have occupied it for many years. At the centre of the case was a property in the inner west suburb of Balmain, which last sold in 2023 for $1.9 million following the death of its elderly owner. Both the seller of the weatherboard cottage – the daughter of the former owner – and the buyer had assumed a 3.35 square metre triangular-shaped parcel of land adjoining the site was part of the property.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-man-claims-land-in-ha…
# Hot topic NSW, .Sirius Redevelopment by BVN
Andrew Nimmo Architecture AU (No paywall)In 2018, as president of the New South Wales Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects, I presented the state’s Enduring Architecture award to Tao Goffers as design architect for the Sirius Building. It was a deliberately political act. At the time, the building was at risk of demolition, and the jury – me, Hector Abrahams, and Callantha Brigham – thought that a strong statement about the building’s architectural merit might help to raise public awareness and assist in the argument for preservation.
https://architectureau.com/articles/sirius-redevelopment-by-bvn/
# Hot topic NSW, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent.