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
‘Craziest’ market in 30 years: the impact of the global housing boom
Shane Wright and Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It’s not only Australian home buyers facing a tough market. Property prices around the world are surging on the back of ultra-cheap interest rates and stimulus measures put in place to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/craziest-market-in-30-ye…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market, International.Is your flat Wellington's next top Mould-el?: Competition launched to find the worst flat
Nick James (No paywall)From New Zealand ... A new online competition is seeking to find Wellington's worst rental property from the past five years. Advocacy group A City For People created the competition, a tongue-in-cheek play on the reality TV Series America's Next Top Model. To enter, people need to complete a form online, answer a few questions and then submit a photo of their flat to prove it is the mouldiest and most unliveable. The winner will receive a cash prize of $610 - the current median weekly rent in Wellington (as of April 2021).
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/is-your-flat-wellingtons-next-top-…
# Must read International, Public and community housing, Rent, Repairs, Mould.Millionaires’ woe: $1m-plus price tags on the rise for a piece of Sydney or Melbourne
Jennifer Duke and Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)UNSW City Future Research Centre’s Professor Bill Randolph said current property price rises raised “serious risks for inequality” even between homeowners. He said the Sydney figures showed the gap between the western and eastern suburbs, and the south-west and north-eastern suburbs widening by the minute. The Melbourne figures showed a similar trend. ... "Wealth is being concentrated into a very privileged class of person who tends to be older while Generation Rent looks on with envy or horror,” Professor Randolph said. “The generational divide between boomers and the others will increase. Young people wanting to buy a first home would increasingly be relying on help from relatives, provided they were lucky enough to have parents who owned a home. It used to be income inequality that people talked about but housing wealth inequality is now what the big issue is and it will drive a divide in society. This is a huge potential instability factor in the economy. We can’t jump off because if we do then half the economy unravels. We simply have got to get to grips with this. This is a long-term structural problem we’re going to have to unwind.”
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/millionaires-woe-1m-plus…
# Australia, Housing market.Agency staff allowed to work across multiple aged care homes during Covid lockdown
Nino Bucci The Guardian (No paywall)Agency staff working in aged care are exempt from federal government rules preventing work across multiple sites during Victoria’s Covid outbreak. The Morrison government came under fire earlier this week when it emerged staff who tested positive at two Melbourne aged care homes had worked across multiple sites after rules preventing the practice were relaxed.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/05/agency-st…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Housing market, Older people.Victorian dole applications soar as more than half of renters struggle to stay afloat
Rachael Dexter The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The number of Victorians applying for unemployment benefits has soared since the beginning of the state’s fourth lockdown as data reveals more than half of Victorian tenants are scrimping to pay rent. ... Data gathered by Tenants Victoria found more than half of Victorian renters are struggling to make their payments. Renters have on average lost $817 of income as a result of the snap lockdown, according to survey data from more than 1100 tenants surveyed statewide by Tenants Victoria over the past week. Those surveyed were renters who had previously sought legal assistance from Tenants Victoria since the start of 2020 as a result of the pandemic. Of those surveyed, 66 per cent said they had been financially impacted by the statewide lockdown. Some 53 per cent said the lockdown had affected their ability to pay rent.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/victorian-dole-applicat…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Bringing the house down: A Quinovic monologue
Robbie Nicol (No paywall)From New Zealand ... SATIRE: Kia ora! My name is Robbie and I’m another white man behind a desk. Today we’re talking about Quinovic: New Zealand’s number one property management company, if you’re listing them in order from most to least evil.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300322768/bringing-the-house-dow…
# Video International, Rent, Landlords and agents.Melbourne renters struggling in lockdown urge government to bring back eviction moratorium
Calla Wahlquist The Guardian (No paywall)Melburnians who struggled to pay rent during last winter’s lockdown are at risk of eviction again unless the state government reinstates the rental moratorium, advocacy services have warned, with some renters carrying up to $18,000 in deferred rental debt.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/04/melbourne…
# Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.COVID-19: Lockdown support for Victorian tenants
Lauren Vardy (No paywall)COVID-19 restrictions are in force for Melbourne and have been extended another 7 days past Thursday, 3 June. Here’s what you need to know about the lockdown and where to get tenancy support. (rent.com.au)
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.