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
‘Very big package’: $10 billion aged care boost at heart of federal budget
James Massola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Morrison government will promise at least $10 billion over four years for aged care in the May federal budget, including allowing more people to stay in their own homes for longer.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/very-big-package-10-bill…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people.'The Tenants' Is a Great Game About Landlord Jobs That Shouldn't Exist
Gita Jackson (No paywall)The Tenants is a fun game, and one clearly made with a lot of passion for the genres it's straddling. ... The Tenants tries to portray the system of renters and landlords as fair and easily navigable make the game seem like a cruel joke. You have to change too much about the imbalance of power between renters and landlords to make it into a game that's satisfying to play. It's a fantasy where landlords have to work hard for their customers, and renters have lots of choices. It's nothing like the real world, where landlords have all the leverage, and renters have to live in decaying homes on the crumbs they leave behind.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg8emb/the-tenants-is-a-great-ga…
# International, Rent, Landlords and agents.Fuelling the property fire? The stir-crazy Australians seeking better homes and gardens
Polly Dunning The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)In March last year, when the apocalypse seemed upon us (fire, flood and plague, anyone?) and the most stable investment opportunity appeared to be 48 rolls of 4-ply, economists predicted a rapid collapse of housing prices. ... But, one year on, prices are in fact rising at the fastest rate in 32 years. ... This is why house prices are rising much faster than apartment prices ... apartments are great when you’re out of the house at work all day and strapped for time – they’re easy to maintain, and tend to be close to local amenities. But when you’re stuck in them for long periods, especially with little kids, well, frankly, they suck.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/fuelling-the-property-fire-the-s…
# Australia, Housing market.Mascot Towers owners urged to sell as developers express interest in demolishing beleaguered block
Ursula Malone ABC (No paywall)Owners of apartments in the troubled Mascot Towers building have been advised it is no longer financially viable to fix the building and that their best option is to sell up. ... Chair of the Mascot Towers Owners Corporation Gary Deigan told the ABC: "The only solution in our mind is to sell the building off. We have lost a lot of money. We have to decide whether we are going to continue to lose money or try to recover some."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-15/mascot-towers-owners-urge…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.700,000 renters hit with unfair eviction notices during pandemic
Dan Wilson Craw (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... One in 12 private renters has been given notice to move out without a reason since March 2020, a new poll by Survation reveals today. The survey, commissioned by us, indicates that as many as 694,000 private tenants have been served with a Section 21 notice during the pandemic, which allows landlords to evict tenants without needing a reason. (Generation Rent) Read the same story at: [https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/one-in-12-private-renters-served-no-fault-eviction-notice-during-pandemic-survey-finds-70397].
# International, Rent, No-grounds evictions.Bega Valley Shire Council asks home owners to rent vacant holiday properties as NSW faces housing shortage
Keira Proust ABC (No paywall)When family psychologist Terra Harrison decided to take the plunge and move from Newcastle to the sleepy seaside town of Eden on the NSW Far South Coast, she realised some "out of the box" thinking was needed to find a place to live. Ms Harrison had decided to move her family to the region for a "tree change," and to help deliver more mental health support services to regional NSW. But she said it was concerning to see only two viable rental options on the market when trying to move.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-17/bega-valley-council-says-…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market, Regional NSW.Immigrant town
Samuel Yang ABC (No paywall)“Am I going to be OK there in Australia? Am I going to be able to learn the language and make friends and fit into the community?” These are some of the questions Iraqi refugee Zinah al-Haidari was asking herself as her family prepared to move 13,000 kilometres around the world to New South Wales back in 2013. ... But Liverpool is also a suburb of New South Wales situated some 27 kilometres south-west of the Sydney CBD. With more than 120 ethnicities and 140 languages spoken, Liverpool is one of the most multicultural places in Australia — more than half of its residents were born overseas, hailing from places as diverse as Iraq, Vietnam, Fiji, India and Lebanon. [Read on]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-17/liverpool-migrants-why-ne…
# NSW, Families, Housing market, Personal stories, Race and ethnicity.Highly coveted Sydney suburbs record double-digit rent declines: Domain
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Renters are starting to return to inner-city areas a year after the pandemic hit, taking advantage of cheaper prices in once highly coveted suburbs, new data reveals. Although overall Sydney house rents held at record levels of $550 per week in the March quarter, according to the latest Domain Rent Report, in a string of postcodes from the inner west to the city and eastern suburbs, rents have posted double-digit declines in the past year.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/highly-coveted-sydney-suburbs-rec…
# NSW, Rent, Housing market.