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
Paris court fines Airbnb $9.6 million for illegal listings
Romain Dillet (No paywall)A court in Paris has fined Airbnb, the popular marketplace for vacation rentals. According to the court, the tech company has failed to comply with local regulation when it comes to listing your apartment on the platform. Airbnb should pay $9.6 million (€8.08 million) to the city of Paris. This decision has been years in the making. Like many major cities around the world, Airbnb has had some impact on the housing market in Paris. Many apartments disappeared from the housing market as they became full-time Airbnb apartments, leading to high rents. (TechCrunch)
https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/01/paris-court-fines-airbnb-9-6-m…
# International, Rent, Housing market, Short-term holiday letting.Construction watchdog: Body corporates are not reporting known defects
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The NSW construction watchdog has major concerns that body corporates are underreporting serious defects in high-rise apartment buildings to government officials charged with cleaning up the construction industry and restoring public confidence. A survey of more than 500 buildings in NSW built in the past six years found that 36 per cent had serious defects. Of those with defects, just 17 per cent of the buildings had already been reported to the regulator.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/construction-watchdog-body-c…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Opposing view: a homeless man’s million-dollar vista
Frank Robson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sam’s tent faces east across the sea towards a gap between two offshore islands. On the best days, when the air is clear and light winter westerlies smooth the water, the blue-black ridges of the islands are etched sharply against the sky and everything appears closer than it is. At other times, great banks of cloud roll in from the south bringing squalls that whip up dangerous waves and cloak the islands behind columns of hard-driving rain. ... A ridge behind his campsite is lined with expensive glass-fronted homes and apartments, and some of the owners aren’t happy about Sam enjoying the same views as them.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/opposing-view-a-homeless-man-s-m…
# Australia, Homelessness, Personal stories.Remaining Miami apartment building to be demolished, nearby units evacuated after review
ABC (No paywall)Worries have intensified over the past week that the damaged structure could come tumbling down on its own, endangering the crews below and complicating the search for victims. ... Meanwhile, residents of a North Miami Beach high-rise loaded clothes and valuables into suitcases, laundry baskets and wagons and wheeled them to waiting cars after they were forced to evacuate the building when it was found to be unsafe. An audit prompted by the collapse of Champlain Towers South in nearby Surfside found that the 156-unit Crestview Towers in North Miami Beach, about 8 kilometres away, had been deemed structurally and electrically unsafe in January ... Check out further reports on Champlain Towers South and Crestview Towers at: [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/03/miami-condo-collapse-board-debate] and at: [https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/another-florida-apartment-tower-declared-unsafe-evacuated-20210703-p586iz.html]. ... and the latest news at: [https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/demolition-crews-take-over-from-rescuers-at-collapsed-florida-tower-20210704-p586qj.html]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-04/miami-building-demolition…
# International, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Developer forced to fix serious defects in two Parramatta apartment towers
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The developer of two 22-storey apartment towers in Parramatta’s CBD has been issued with orders preventing it from allowing owners and tenants to move in after serious defects were discovered. ... The developer, Merhis Group, is the same company that was responsible for a 16-storey apartment building in Auburn that was issued orders last year to resolve major defects. ... [NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler] issued a prohibition order on Wednesday for the Parramatta towers after inspectors found “serious defects” in an internal load-bearing part of the complex, as well as in its waterproofing and a fire-safety system.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/developer-forced-to-fix-seri…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.New housing supply, population growth and access to social infrastructure
AHURI (No paywall)A study undertaken by Researchers from The University of Sydney focuses on the potential to better inform the planning, scheduling, delivery, maintenance, and coordination of social infrastructure in the rapidly growing greenfield areas of major Australian cities through the use of big data sources and techniques. The research focuses on greenfield areas of Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth greater metropolitan regions to demonstrate data sources and methods that are able to be replicated in other contexts. This study breaks new ground, as it extends the idea of accessibility to social infrastructure as a critical facility to support daily life.
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#inbox/WhctKKWxWFhTzTWmft…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.7600 new homes earmarked for Sydney’s Macquarie Park
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More than 7600 new homes are planned for half of Macquarie Park over the next two decades as part of a blueprint for developing the fast-growing area into an innovation precinct.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/7600-new-homes-earmarked-for…
# NSW, Housing market, Planning and development.Rental Opportunity of the Week: How to Stop Landlords Constantly Being the Worst
Joel Golby (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Why do landlords never look at a flat like this and think, ‘Am I really trying to make someone live in here?’ Do they have any experience of actually living life in a space before they try to rent one? (Vice)
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3aqp48/flat-rent-stockwell-renta…
# International, Rent, Minimum habitability standards.