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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Rent controls work: They don’t reduce housing supply but they do limit profit
Ricardo Tranjan The Toronto Star (No paywall)With the housing debate in Canada today so focused on building new housing, it’s easy to lose sight of an obvious fact: most tenants are currently housed. What is more, they are housed in suitable-sized places that don’t need major repairs. The challenge so many tenants face today is not finding a place but affording and keeping the one they already have. The response to this problem is well-known: effective rent controls. In recent years, new studies have demonstrated that rent controls work. They stabilize rent increases without negative effects. Provincial governments could put an end to skyrocketing rents right now — if they were really interested in doing so.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/rent-controls-work-…
# Hot topic International, Rent.International evidence shows that increasing tenants’ rights does not scare off landlords
Jamie Gollings Conservative Home (No paywall)It seems that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities are resigned to pulling measures to ban no-fault evictions from their Renters Reform Bill. In a recent letter to Conservative MPs, Jacob Young, the Levelling-Up Minister, outlined plans “to require the Lord Chancellor to publish an assessment on barriers to possession and the readiness of the courts in advance of abolishing Section 21 for existing tenancies”. This refers to Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, which gives landlords the right to evict tenants with two months’ notice, even if they have perfectly abided by their tenancy agreements, whenever they wish.
https://conservativehome.com/2024/04/11/jamie-gollings-internati…
# Hot topic International, Rent.The men and decisions behind Australia’s housing crisis
Mike Seccombe The Saturday Paper (No paywall)The crude political calculus behind Australia’s housing crisis was never more clearly expressed than by John Howard during an interview on Brisbane radio on September 19, 2003. Since the election of the Coalition government in 1996, house prices had doubled. Howard’s interviewer wanted to know what the government planned to do about it. The answer was nothing. “I haven’t found anybody in seven-and-a-half years shake their fist at me and say, ‘Howard, I’m angry with you for letting the value of my house increase,’ ” the then prime minister said. That line has been cited with increasing frequency over recent times as the crisis has worsened. More revealing, however, was what followed.
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/economy/2024/04/13/the-…
# Must read Australia, .Bluey's family might be selling their house. What does it mean that they couldn't afford to buy it?
Daniel Ziffer ABC (No paywall)Australia's favourite family, The Heelers, appear to be on the move. A "For Sale" sign is outside their three-bedroom house, a wooden, semi-elevated Queenslander-style house that's home to Bluey and her younger sister Bingo. Enjoyed by millions of viewers here and overseas for its hilarity and warmth, the Bluey series is an engaging fantasy of Australian family life. But it's a stark contrast to the reality of a housing crisis that's making life difficult for millions of local families.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-13/blueys-family-may-sell-th…
# Hot topic Australia, .WA MP served no-grounds eviction notice from Guildford landlord
Sarah Brookes WA Today (No paywall)Independent MP Wilson Tucker rallied alongside tenants and housing advocates on the steps of WA Parliament on Tuesday to demand greater protection for renters after he received a “without grounds” termination notice last week. Tucker is currently leasing a house in Guildford and said as one of the few MPs who rent their home, he had firsthand experience navigating the crisis in the sector. The Rental Tenancies Amendment Bill includes reforms to limit rent increases to annually and give tenants more freedom to have pets and make minor changes to dwellings.
https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/wa-mp-serv…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Affordable private rental supply and demand: short-term disruption and longer-term structural change
Margaret Reynolds, Sharon Parkinson, Jacqueline De Vries & Kath Hulse AHURI (No paywall)This research analyses the ABS Census to reveal changes in the supply of private rental housing affordable and available to lower-income households (Q1 and Q2 households) over both the short term (2016–21) and the longer term (1996–2021). It also provides analysis of how COVID-19 policy and population responses temporarily altered the long-run structural trajectory of the private rental sector (PRS) in Australia. In 2021, the Australian PRS housed more than 2.363 million households, a 17 per cent increase of nearly 340,000 households since the 2016 Census. This growth has been greater than total household growth in each intercensal period since 1996.
# Research alert Australia, Rent.Australian renters face all-time high rents and record low vacancy rates after prices jump in March quarter
Gareth Hutchens and Nadia Daly ABC (No paywall)Asking rents for houses and units have jumped to new record highs in Australia's major cities, according to Domain's latest rent report. In the March quarter, asking rents for houses saw their steepest quarterly gain in 17 years, and asking rents for units extended their record-breaking streak to 11 successive quarters of growth. Vacancy rates decreased across all capital cities, except Hobart, and hit new lows in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. But Domain's researchers say there's hope on the horizon for renters because conditions are expected to turn more in renters' favour this year. "While Australia's perilous rental market appears entrenched in a never-ending run of rent rises, we remain optimistic that a tipping point will be reached in 2024," said Nicola Powell, Domain's chief of research and economics.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-11/record-high-rents-low-vac…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Why rents continue to skyrocket
ABC (No paywall)VIDEO: Australian renters are facing all-time high asking rents and record low vacancy rates across the country according to property marketplace Domain. In the March quarter, asking rents for houses saw their steepest quarterly gain in 17 years, and asking rents for units extended their record-breaking streak to 11 successive quarters of growth. Vacancy rates fell across all capital cities, except Hobart, and hit new lows in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. But Domain's researchers say there's hope on the horizon for renters because conditions are expected to turn more in their favour later in 2024.
# Video Australia, Rent.