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
A constant worry: Renters confront the impact of unfair evictions
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Eviction impacts lives. Moving house is generally considered one of life’s most stressful events: the financial costs, and stress involved are substantial, and these are exacerbated when a household is forced to move. This report examines this impact, and specifically for those who have been evicted without being provided a reason. It draws on and centres the experiences of renters in NSW who have directly experienced a ‘no grounds’ eviction, often more than once, as well as renters who have not directly been served a ‘no grounds’ notice, but experience them as a chronic and persistent threat throughout their tenancy. For this report we surveyed 123 NSW renters, asking them about the impact of the eviction financially and emotionally. We asked about challenges they may have faced in securing alternative housing, and how the ‘no grounds’ eviction – or the possibility of eviction – affected them during their next tenancy.
# Must read, TUNSW in the media, Research alert NSW, Eviction.Brock got the news the day he asked for repairs – one of 30,000 NSW renters evicted without a reason each year
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)Brock’s bathroom sink was leaking last year. The landlord had attended to the repair himself – they had chatted, got along. In January Brock, who did not want his last name used, sent a few emails about a leaking air conditioner. The property manager said she would organise a tradie to visit at the earliest convenience. That didn’t happen. But when Brock sent another email about the sink, which had again become a problem, he thought it would get fixed. Instead, within hours, he and his partner were served with a notice to vacate. The couple pay $475 a week for a two-bedroom home in regional New South Wales.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/03/brock-got…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Rent, Repairs.‘A big problem for a large part of society’: Sydney rents hit record highs
Tawar Razaghi The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Sydney rents have hit record highs and experts warn the city’s rental crisis has become entrenched, escalating pressure on middle-income earners, under-40s and anyone priced out of home ownership. Asking rents for a typical house hit $750 a week after rising 13.6 per cent – or $90 a week – over the year to March, the latest Domain Rent Report released on Thursday showed. The median asking rent for units hit $700, a 12.9 per cent increase – or $80 a week – in the same period. Experts say the persistent escalation of the rental crisis is a leading cause of high inflation, cost-of-living pressures on households, and homelessness.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/a-big-problem-for-a-large-p…
# TUNSW in the media, Research alert NSW, .Tenants awarded thousands after living in disrepaired Sydney rental
Elizabeth Daoud 7 News (No paywall)A pair of Sydney tenants have been awarded thousands of dollars after taking their landlord to court over their rental property’s state of disrepair. The tenants rented the three-bedroom Greenacre townhouse, in Sydney’s west, from January 2019 to July 2023. In the months before they vacated the property, the tenants had been paying $550 a week for rent. They applied to the Civil and Administrative Tribunal with claims their rent was excessive in the final year they were renting due to the fact their oven was not working, the blinds and cabana on the property were in a state of disrepair and there was mould in the house.
https://7news.com.au/news/tenants-awarded-thousands-after-living…
# Must read NSW, Rent, Repairs, Tribunal NCAT.I knew the facts about millennials but I wasn’t ready to admit the life my parents had would never be mine
Miles Herbert The Guardian (No paywall)It took working on a podcast about what’s happening to young people for me to let go of the idealism about my future and face the sobering reality. The uncertainty facing my generation was not new to me. I have read articles just like the one I am now trying to write. I have seen the reports. I have watched the TikToks. But the life I am living was by far the biggest clue that my generation is facing a growing economic crisis. I just was not ready to admit it.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/mar/25/millennials…
# Hot topic NSW, .Five ideas to make life easier for renters and first homebuyers
Max Maddison The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Liberal MPs have urged the party to embrace renters as the “new forgotten people”, with one warning a failure to appeal to the growing cohort “will make us unelectable for decades to come”. Davidson MP Matt Cross and MLC Chris Rath called for the party to adopt policies aimed at supporting renters, including providing landlords who offer long-term rental agreements of three years or more tax breaks and replacing bonds on rental properties with “simple insurance products” to protect landlords.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/five-ideas-to-make-life-easi…
# Hot topic NSW, .Six more train stations added to high-density housing plan
Alexandra Smith The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)The Minns government’s signature density reforms around train stations will be expanded, adding an extra six stations to the existing 31 after several councils asked for more suburbs to be included. Belmore, Lakemba and Punchbowl stations will be added, as well as Cardiff and Cockle Creek near Newcastle, and Woy Woy on the Central Coast. All six were suggested by the local councils for inclusion. The bulk of reforms, which will amend planning controls to allow six-storey residential apartment buildings within 400 metres of the station in the 37 chosen suburbs, are due to start this month.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/when-the-new-planning-rules-…
# Legal significance NSW, .Power to the renters: Demographic changes give them new clout
The Herald's View The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)For many Sydneysiders, renting or trying to rent is a brutal reminder of their true powerlessness in a society that values homeownership as shelter and investment. Through no fault of their own, renters have been made to pay the spiralling costs for a roof over their heads while owners continue to receive all sorts of assistance to ease their burden. Little has been done to help tenants face the runaway train of paying rent in Sydney. But the realisation they may shape the future of politics in marginal seats has raised the possibility that renters possess powers never realised.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/power-to-the-renters-demogra…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.