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
Landlords who threatened to quit rental market over tenancy law changes all bark and no bite
Mikaela Wilkes (No paywall)From New Zealand ... A threatened stampede of landlords leaving the residential property market has failed to eventuate. The Residential Tenancies Amendment Act (RTAA) passes into law on February 11. Under the new law, landlords can no longer issue 90-day ‘no cause’ termination notices and fixed term tenancies will automatically roll over to periodic tenancies on expiry unless otherwise agreed. Rent increases have been limited to once a year, rental bidding has been outlawed, and landlords have to allow tenants to make minor alterations (such as baby-proofing, hanging pictures, and earthquake proofing) to their rental. (Stuff)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/renting/124054302/landl…
# Must read, New policy announcement International, Eviction, Rent, Landlords and agents, No-grounds evictions.Pandemic’s Toll on Housing: Falling Behind, Doubling Up
Conor Dougherty The New York Times (No paywall)From United States ... As the pandemic enters its second year, millions of renters are struggling with a loss of income and with the insecurity of not knowing how long they will have a home. Their savings depleted, they are running up credit card debt to make the rent, or accruing months of overdue payments. Families are moving in together, offsetting the cost of housing by finding others to share it. The nation has a plague of housing instability that was festering long before Covid-19, and the pandemic’s economic toll has only made it worse. Now the financial scars are deepening and the disruptions to family life growing more severe, leaving a legacy that will remain long after mass vaccinations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/06/business/economy/housing-inse…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.If you thought the pandemic would bring on an era of affordable housing in Australia - you were wrong
Brigid Delaney The Guardian (No paywall)Australian property is to pandemics what cockroaches are to nuclear war – totally indestructible. And it’s not just the big cities anymore
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/05/if-you-tho…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19.When Jo’s marriage broke down, her hoarding got out of control
Evelyn Lewin The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When Jo got divorced 14 years ago, she walked away from her marriage with next to nothing. The then 43-year-old senior account manager bought a three-bedroom house for herself and her eight-year-old son and set to work furnishing it. But within 12 months, her home was “overflowing”. Read on ...
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/when-jo-s-m…
# Australia, Health, Older people.'A failure of society': Britain's slum housing crisis – in pictures
Mee-Lai Stone The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... In the late 1960s the country’s crumbling flats and tenements were causing a breakdown in society. Shelter asked photographer Nick Hedges to document homes unfit for human habitation
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/feb/02/a-f…
# International, History, Housing market.No fun at the YMCA for Meriton amid legal tussle over Sydney heritage building
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A long-running spat between Meriton and a strata committee over claims the large property company failed to adequately clean and maintain the former YMCA headquarters in central Sydney has ended up in court. After complaints stretching back more than four years, the strata committee terminated Meriton Apartments’ caretaker agreement for the heritage-listed building on Pitt Street last July.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/no-fun-at-the-ymca-for-merit…
# NSW, Strata.Sydney and Melbourne increasingly divided into pockets of home-owners and renters, study finds
Melissa Heagney Domain (Paywall)Sydney and Melbourne are increasingly being divided into clusters of renters and home-owners, with tenants sticking to the inner city while home-owners move to middle and outer-ring suburbs, a new study has revealed. Growing hubs in middle and outer-ring suburbs are diffusing populations away from the CBD, but are more likely to attract home-owners than renters, researchers at the University of Sydney have found.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-and-melbourne-increasingly…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market.Underinsurance is entrenching poverty as the vulnerable are hit hardest by disasters
Kate Isabel Booth and others The Fifth Estate (No paywall)More than 70 homes were destroyed by bushfires in Western Australia this week, leaving those affected facing enormous costs. After disasters like these, insurance is not always there as needed — or as expected. In Australia, where one in six children live in poverty, significant rates of underinsurance entrench disadvantage and hardship. This dynamic will worsen as the consequences of unmitigated climate change unfold.
https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/under…
# Hot topic Australia, .