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
Building insurers back in the apartment game
Jimmy Thomson (No paywall)When Building Commissioner David Chandler told us that his shake-up of new building standards in NSW would lead to a return of insurers providing cover for new apartment builds, there were a few in the industry who quietly said, ‘tell him he’s dreamin’.” This week that dream became a reality when a major insurer offered cover for selected new apartment blocks’ construction – the first time that has been available to blocks over three storeys high in 20 years, following the collapse of HIH Insurance and the GFC. (Flat Chat) Also, read Rose Mary Petrass' article entitled: '“Bad news for bad developers” – NSW first with 10 year apartment defect insurance' in 'The Fifth Estate' at: [https://thefifthestate.com.au/business/bad-news-for-bad-developers-nsw-first-with-10-year-apartment-defect-insurance/]
# NSW, Strata.Housing association’s women-only affordable housing scheme in west London rejected by councillors
Ella Jessel Inside Housing (Paywall)Hammersmith and Fulham’s planning committee turned down a proposal by the suffragette-founded Women’s Pioneer Housing (WPH) to replace 36 flats and its run-down offices in White City with 60 new homes. The scheme, a joint venture with developer HUB and designed by architects AHMM, would also have seen an 18-storey co-living tower with 209 studios built on the 227 Wood Lane site. However despite planning officers recommending approval, WPH’s scheme was rejected after a debate at Hammersmith and Fulham’s planning committee earlier this month.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/housing-associations-w…
# International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Planning and development, Women.Home Truths: Realities of the housing market in a public service town
Chris Johnson (No paywall)Australian Public Service employees have always had an impact on the Canberra housing market – both sales and rentals – because so many of them live and work in the capital. Depending on individual contracts and employment status, durations in the ACT vary from fleeting short-stays to lengthy permanency. And then there are the hordes of people working for industries that service the sector. They need homes too. (Riotact)
https://the-riotact.com/home-truths-realities-of-the-housing-mar…
# Australia, Housing market.Single housing ombudsman should cover social and private tenants, current watchdog says
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... In response to a report by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) Committee, published in July, the Housing Ombudsman said there should be a single body with “universal powers to ensure consistent and fair redress across the housing market, regardless of tenure or provider”. The comments were in response to the committee’s recommendation in the report, which followed its inquiry into the regulation of social housing in England, that all tenants should receive the same level of compensation for landlord failings, regardless of tenure. In June, rental reforms in a white paper proposed that a new private rented sector ombudsman could order rogue landlords to pay up to £25,000 in compensation to tenants.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/home/single-housing-ombudsm…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Landlords and agents.‘Data breach waiting to happen’: Warning for real estate agents and renters on personal info requests
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Years of work and rental history, bank statements, self-funded background checks, social media profiles and pet resumes are just some details that prospective renters have to provide to secure a property. Experts have raised concerns about the potential risk of an Optus-style data breach waiting to happen in the real estate industry as it amasses more and more sensitive information on rental applicants. Real estate agents have almost free rein on what they can ask to collect – beyond protection against basic discrimination based on background or disability – and some ask for applications just to view a property. In a tight rental market, prospective tenants feel obliged to provide as much information as they’re asked for, said Leo Patterson Ross, chief executive of Tenants Union NSW. ... The Real Estate Institute of Australia’s president Hayden Groves said renter privacy and the risk of a data breach were of deep concern to the Institute. “It is on our radar, and we’ll be looking to ensure our state institute members who are dealing with this sort of sensitive data have the correct tools that they’re following due process and best practice principles,” Groves said.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/data-breach-waiting-to-happ…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Privacy and access, Rent, Landlords and agents.Why Akshay was shocked to be evicted from share house
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)University student Akshay Gonpot never expected to be evicted from his Chippendale home just weeks after agreeing to a rent rise. He knew Sydney’s rental market was becoming increasingly expensive, but thought paying an additional $45 per week would be enough to satisfy his landlord. It was not. Within three weeks the 27-year-old international student and other tenants at his boarding house were given two weeks’ notice to vacate. And within three days, another tenant had put a deposit on his room that had gone from $295 per week to $430. ... Antona Bursa, international students officer for the UTS Students Association, said finding any apartment to rent close to universities, let alone an affordable one, was an increasing challenge, and called on universities to provide more support. ... Tenants’ Union of NSW chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said international students face more tenancy disputes than locals. “Sometimes we even hear that landlords might take passports as a form of security which is completely unlawful, or people are told their visa will be put at risk if they don’t pay their rent,” he said. While some came from affluent homes, many worked to support themselves, and about a quarter were in a precarious financial situation, said professor Alan Morris, from the Institute for Public Policy and Governance at UTS.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/why-akshay-was-shocked-to-b…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Eviction, Rent, Students.The impact of the pandemic on the Australian rental sector
Emma Baker, Lyrian Daniel, Andrew Beer, Steven Rowley, Wendy Stone, Rebecca Bentley, Rachel Caines and Gemma Sansom AHURI (No paywall)AHURI Report: This research investigates the Australian rental sector during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic and considers priorities for governments; tenant experiences and reflections on the effectiveness of assistance and interventions; changing tenant aspirations; and the priorities for emerging responses. The research highlights how ‘nimble’ the Australian policy community had been in response to COVID-19, and the success of many of their rapid interventions. The challenge is how to sustain assistance as Australia moves from the health emergency to maintaining (perhaps very long-term) assistance.
# Research alert Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Australia’s housing crisis is self-inflicted. We need four reforms to reverse it
Matt Grudnoff The Guardian (No paywall)Public housing underinvestment and huge tax concessions to landlords have wreaked havoc on our rental market. ... How is it that in Australia, one of the richest countries in the world, we have a housing crisis where hundreds of thousands of renters can’t afford a roof over their head? To figure out why rents are soaring, we need to look at the broader political problem: we have spent about two decades trying to screw up the housing market and we have, catastrophically, succeeded. The Australian housing market is broken. ... The best long-term solution to the structural problems of the rental crisis is to build more public housing. ... That’s why the second solution to fixing the rental crisis could be to reform incentives that give an advantage to investors over owner occupiers. ... In immediate terms, the third reform is to renters’ rights: that means we need a ban on “no cause” evictions, where landlords can kick tenants out for no reason. ... The final thing we need to do is make renting more affordable by either increasing rent assistance or looking at rental caps, similar to many countries in Europe and some US states.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/22/australias…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Landlords and agents, Tax, Welfare.