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
Disastrous: low-income tenants priced out of newly renovated boarding houses
Daisy Dumas The Guardian (No paywall)When a boarding house in Sydney’s inner-west was razed by arson last year, taking with it the lives of three residents and leaving eight without homes, the hope was that it would be replaced with a newer, safer version of the same low-cost community housing.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/03/disastrou…
# NSW, Boarders and lodgers.There’s a secret behind this $28m Sydney apartment block that few people know about
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Few people guess that a new award-winning apartment block with its address on Bigge Street in Warwick Farm written in oversized, concrete letters is public housing. “That’s housing commission?” asked an incredulous member of the public seeing the flats for the first time.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/there-s-a-secret-behind-this…
# Must read NSW, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Homes NSW, Families, Health, Home, Housing affordability, Housing market, Neighbours, Older people, Personal stories, Planning and development, Renting culture, State Government, Strong communities.NSW minister concedes social housing situation ‘desperate’ as waitlist for most in need doubles in a decade
Tamsin Rose The Guardian (No paywall)Rose Jackson announces monthly release of social housing data, with first tranche showing ‘priority’ applications soaring. New South Wales’s priority social housing waitlist has doubled in less than a decade and surged by 1,000 to 7,573 over the past year, as wait times continue to rise across the state.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/11/nsw-minis…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, State Government.Bureaucrat threatens to remove Byron Council’s planning powers
Hans Lovejoy Echo (No paywall)Byron Shire Council risks losing its planning powers to ‘independent intervention’ if it does not ‘demonstrate how it intends to improve its housing supply’. In an aggressive letter to Council’s general manager, Mark Arnold, Sydney-based Deputy Secretary NSW Planning, Marcus Ray, outlined what he believes is Council’s failure in fast-tracking housing supply for the area, adding that Council’s development application (DA) processing times ‘are among the slowest in the state’.
https://www.echo.net.au/2023/08/bureaucrat-threatens-to-remove-b…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Housing market, Local Government.Minns government weighs up Landcom shake-up to build more homes
Michael Koziol and Deborah Snow The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The NSW government is considering a shake-up of state-owned corporation Landcom to focus on building homes instead of selling off land to developers, as planners narrow down a list of Sydney sites for a housing density blitz.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/minns-government-weighs-up-l…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Homes NSW, State Government, Sydney.The Sydney council planning to turn parking lots into housing
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydney’s Inner West Council wants to turn council-owned parking lots into affordable housing. The council has a shortlist of 10 parking lots that would rent “well below” market rates. Mayor Darcy Byrne says the area was “at the epicentre” of the rental crisis. Parking expert Dr Liz Taylor said there was a global trend to use “lazy land” like car parks in inner-city areas to address housing shortages. A single open-air car park providing 200 spots for cars has the potential to become 600 apartments across 10 storeys, according to an urban planner.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-sydney-council-planning-…
# NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market, Local Government, Sydney.NSW regulator to carry out review of embedded power networks pricing
Peter Hannam The Guardian (No paywall)The utilities regulator in New South Wales will begin a review into the pricing of private energy networks and also whether new hot and chilled water services should be banned.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/15/nsw-elect…
# Hot topic NSW, Land lease communities, Strata, Utilities water energy internet, Campaigns and law reform, Embedded networks.Reason to avoid certain rentals revealed in warning to tenants
Brooke Rolfe news.com.au (No paywall)Hopeful tenants have been told to stay away from this seemingly idyllic rental for one sinister reason. The property’s advertisement on Facebook Marketplace, complete with professional photos and a legitimate summary of features, has all been revealed to be a sham.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/reason-to-avoid-cert…
# Hot topic NSW, Applying to rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Personal data and privacy.