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
Two Aussie cities failing at 'incredible' planning tactic being embraced overseas
Michael Dahlstrom Yahoo News (No paywall)After mapping 2.5 million buildings across eight cities including Sydney and Melbourne, researchers have uncovered a worrying problem. The RMIT team was examining how a planning ideal that’s taken route internationally was being embraced in Australia. The concept is called the ‘3-30-300' rule, and it’s seen as essential for human well-being. It states that every home, workplace and school should have the following: A view of at least three trees; Be in a neighbourhood with at least 30 per cent tree canopy cover; Sit within 300 metres of a park.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/two-aussie-cities-failing-at-incredibl…
# Must read Australia, .One in five Australian renters are living without essential items and in poverty, peak body study finds
Paul Johnson ABC (No paywall)One in five Australian private renters are living without two or more essential items, according to a new joint study released by peak body the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), and the University of New South Wales. The study also found that of those Australians renting 22 per cent are living below the poverty line, as the nation's dual housing affordability and cost of living crises continues. For those Australians who are renting social housing, that number is more than 50 per cent, the study released exclusively to 7.30 found.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-26/one-in-five-renters-livin…
# Hot topic Australia, .Renting in Melbourne: Allan government announces big fines, tougher rules on landlords in rental crackdown
Sarah Petty realestate.com.au (No paywall)Victorian landlords are facing hefty fines and tougher rules to increase their rent amid new proposed rental reforms. The Allan government announced Wednesday two new measures on top of a raft of reforms put forward in October — including an end of no-cause evictions and a cost-cap on tenants who break their lease early — as part of a new bill to be introduced in parliament. Individuals and real estate agencies who list a rental property that doesn’t meet the minimum standards set out in the Residential Tenancies Act could face an $11,000 or $59,000 fine, respectively. The Labor government also plans to “expand the list of factors” considered by Consumer Affairs Victoria and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) when conducting a rent review, designed to “put the breaks on excessive rent increases,” Premier Jacinta Allan said.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/renting-in-melbourne-allan-go…
# Must read Australia, Eviction, Rent.Build to Rent will produce more homes for tenants, but not for those most in need
Hal Pawson The Conversation (No paywall)Part two of the government’s stalled housing legislation finally passed federal parliament on Thursday. The Build to Rent tax reform bill aims to boost investment in apartment blocks designed and constructed for rental occupancy and retained in single ownership. Other than as purpose-built student accommodation, this form of development remains rare in Australia. Instead, our private rental market continues to be dominated by small-scale “mum and dad investors”. Only since around 2017 have Build to Rent projects begun to appear in some Australian capital cities.
https://theconversation.com/build-to-rent-will-produce-more-home…
# Hot topic Australia, .https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/up-90pc-single-rooms-in-sharehouses-soar-to-570-a-week/news-story/29fc4680a4068480a898d796f37e512c?amp=
Samantha Healy news.com.au (No paywall)The cost of renting a single room in a city sharehouse has soared by up to 90 per cent in a year, with tenants paying more than the median weekly rent for an entire house in some outer suburbs and regions. The shock finding was revealed in the annual Flatmates.com.au National Share Accommodation Survey (NSAS) of over 8700 respondents across the country. It revealed that 35 per cent of respondents reported rent increases in the past six months – half of which were higher than anticipated. The biggest year-on-year increase was at Avalon Beach in Sydney, with an average room in a sharehouse now costing a whopping $570 a week - up 90 per cent compared to last year.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/up-90pc-single-rooms…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Share houses.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-25/greens-to-vote-for-labor-help-to-buy-bill/104644574
Tom Crowley ABC (No paywall)The Greens will vote for Labor's Help to Buy and Build to Rent housing bills, ending a lengthy stand-off and handing the government a victory on key elements of its housing agenda. The bills, which would allow up to 40,000 first home buyers to co-purchase homes with the government and offer a tax incentive for apartment complexes designed for renters, now have the numbers to pass the Senate without significant amendments. Greens leader Adam Bandt said his party had "pushed as hard as it could" for Labor to go further on the housing crisis, but would ultimately not stand in its way. "We will wave through Labor's housing bills … but this issue is not going away," he said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-25/greens-to-vote-for-labor-…
# Must read Australia, .Iconic Sydney building’s land valuation slashed by almost 45 per cent
Michaela Whitbourn The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It is the prized harbourside block in Sydney best known for the striking brutalist building that sits atop it. But just how much the land occupied by the Sirius building in the Rocks is worth has been at the centre of a multimillion-dollar tussle between the NSW Valuer General and a property developer. The Berejiklian government sold the former public housing block for $150 million in 2019 to private investment firm JDH Capital, led by former Macquarie banker Jean-Dominique Huynh. The $150 million redevelopment, completed this year, boasts 76 high-end apartments, 60 of which were sold in 2021 for a reported $405 million. The project has been divisive because of the sell-off of social housing.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/iconic-sydney-building-s-lan…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing.Beauty Point Tourist Park tells court residency is illegal, as park defends issuing eviction notice
Ashleigh Barraclough ABC (Paywall)Lawyers for the owners of a caravan park in northern Tasmania have told a court it must dismiss a man's fight against eviction, otherwise the park could be operating illegally. A long-term "guest" of the Beauty Point Tourist Park took the park's owners to the Launceston Supreme Court after he was issued an eviction notice earlier this year. On Thursday, lawyers for the park's owners told the court that under planning laws, the park is not approved for more than one residential dwelling. The local council has previously said the park is approved for short-term visitor accommodation.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-29/beauty-point-caravan-park…
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Land lease communities.