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
Value of new home loans hits record high for second month in a row
Euan Black The New Daily (No paywall)Lenders approved a record value of new home loans in November as first-home buyers took advantage of falling interest rates and government incentives.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/01/15/home-loan…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.Sunshine Coast woman charged with fraud after allegedly luring desperate renters to pay for a fake rental home
Tass Cassidy ABC (No paywall)A woman on Queensland's Sunshine Coast has been charged with fraud and forgery after she allegedly preyed on vulnerable people desperate to secure a rental property. It is alleged Patricia Anne McIntyre, 50, convinced people to pay thousands of dollars in advance to secure a lease for a faked rental.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-15/qld-sunshine-coast-woman-…
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents.‘We did it all’: The father-daughter duo who built a tiny house from scratch
Brigid Blackney Domain (Paywall)Tiffany Falzon had been a Sydneysider for almost a decade when she had an idea that sparked a move back to her small South Australian hometown. She decided it was time to enlist her dad’s help to build a coastal tiny house that could accommodate guests in Marion Bay (around three hours’ drive from Adelaide) where she grew up. Read more ...
https://www.domain.com.au/living/we-did-it-all-the-father-daught…
# Australia, Granny flats, studios, Short-term holiday letting.Papua New Guinea town of outcasts gearing up for David and Goliath battle to save community of Bushwara
Natalie Whiting ABC (No paywall)Lily Simon can still vividly recall when she was forced to sleep in a tent after being evicted from her home in Port Moresby almost 20 years ago. ... But Ms Simon wanted to find something better and eventually moved to the outskirts of Port Moresby. It was a largely empty, bushy area when she started to build a home and a life there, but in the years that followed more people arrived. It has since become known as Bushwara. ... But two decades after they first arrived, Ms Simon and other residents are again facing the threat of eviction.
Large swathes of Bushwara land belong to PNG superannuation company Nambawan Super. ... Last month, the National Court ruled in Nambawan Super's favour, ordering the settlers to leave in 120 days. The community is planning another legal challenge.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-11/png-people-of-bushwara-fa…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Homelessness, Squatting.Renters' Guide to COVID-19
Tenants Union of NSW Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Check out the latest information in the new and improved Renters' Guide to COVID-19. Regularly updated.
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Grim Photo Exposes ‘Sheer Absurdity’ Of Sydney’s Rental Market
James Booth (No paywall)Thousands of words have been spilt trying to understand Sydney’s housing market. The lifetime mortgages. The tasty signs a suburb could be on the up. The ‘Pharoah’ like attitude to legacy. The ‘unbearable’ perils of moving too far away from the city. The list goes on. Sydney has a similarly absurd rental market. Read on ... (Dmarge)
https://www.dmarge.com/2021/01/sydney-rental-market-current-stat…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Housing market.Danke Apartment: The 'broken eggshell' that left young Chinese homeless
Waiyee Yip and Fan Wang BBC (No paywall)On a cold winter's evening recently, Beijing resident Xiaoyue and his wife returned to their rented flat after dinner - only to find another couple standing at their door, changing the locks. The man and woman were their landlords. They wanted Xiaoyue and his wife out of their apartment immediately ... [Read on ...]
# International, Eviction, Rent, Affordable housing, Landlords and agents.Few fines for Tasmanian landlords: man left homeless after Smithton rental became uninhabitable
Adam Holmes (Paywall)From Tasmania ... After living in deteriorating rental at Smithton for three years, David Billett knew the writing was on the wall ... [Read on] (The Advocate)
https://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/7080102/few-fines-for-landl…
# Australia, Repairs, Tribunal NCAT, Homelessness, Personal stories.