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
Tribunal data shows eviction applications much higher in Sydney’s west
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)NSW landlords are far more likely to take legal action against tenants than the other way around, and the rate of eviction applications is many times higher in Sydney’s west and south-west, new data shows. Tenants’ Union chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said the year’s worth of figures from the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal showed the system was stacked against tenants and reiterated calls for a ban on “no grounds” evictions.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/tribunal-data-shows-eviction…
# TUNSW in the media, Research alert NSW, Bond, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Landlords and agents, No-grounds evictions, Sydney.Alarm bells of a 'climate sub-prime' facing finance, as insurance on home loans gets tricky
Emilia Terzon ABC (No paywall)Alarm bells are being rung about a looming "sub-prime" crisis that could see banks exposed to the elements and more borrowers turned away from home loans in areas prone to extreme weather. Climate change is something many borrowers are not factoring in when they buy a property, but risk assessors say it should be top of mind.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-07/climate-change-insurance-…
# Australia, Climate change, Housing market.Banks and super funds to work on national affordable housing plan
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The nation’s big four banks, superannuation funds and other institutional investors will be brought in by the federal government to help boost finance for social and affordable housing under a plan revealed by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Speaking in Brisbane on Friday, Chalmers said the finance sector would be a key part of a series of roundtable discussions aimed at sharply increasing the amount of investment in areas of national importance.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/banks-and-super-funds-to…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Housing market.‘Really, really horrible’: Grim pickings for renters as vacancies dry up
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Tenants searching for a new home are facing the toughest outlook on record as the national rental vacancy rate holds steady at 0.9 per cent for the third month in a row, new figures show. Tenant advocates are concerned about rising rents and a shortage of available rental listings that can lead some tenants to accept worse conditions in their homes to avoid a situation where their lease is not renewed. ... “If you are forced to move, whether by eviction or work, you are facing a much harder time finding a home,” Tenants’ Union of NSW chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said. “It also means that while you’re in a home already, you start to change your behaviour to try to avoid being forced to move, and you might be putting up with things that you wouldn’t ordinarily.”
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/really-really-horrible-grim…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Tenant advocates call for halt to public housing evictions 'without grounds' after human rights complaint
Emma Wynne ABC (No paywall)Community legal centres around Western Australia have issued a joint statement calling for a moratorium on all evictions from public housing "without grounds", saying vulnerable people are being left on the street with no opportunity to make a case to keep their homes. Despite a Federal Court injunction preventing one family's eviction and a pending investigation by the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), tenant advocates are speaking out after an Aboriginal man was recently evicted from his Perth public housing unit "without grounds" and is now living in a local park.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-08/tenant-advocates-call-for…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Human rights, No-grounds evictions, Race and ethnicity.Lack of affordable lets leaves families with little left to live on
Maeve McClenaghan , Charles Boutaud and Vicky Gayle (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... It is impossible for those on housing benefits to rent a home across large swathes of Britain, according to new research from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. The situation has left some cutting back on heating and dipping into other benefits to meet their housing costs. A Bureau analysis of tens of thousands of rental properties shows 98% of those advertised over a single month were beyond the means of people in receipt of universal credit or housing benefit. ... Polly Neate, chief executive of the housing charity Shelter, said: “These findings back up what we are seeing in our frontline services every day – that finding a safe home if you are on a low income is now like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Housing benefit should be the safety net that stops people becoming homeless, but it’s frozen at 2020 levels, leaving renters desperately trying to make up the shortfall … The housing emergency is at the core of the cost of living crisis, but it is being ignored.” (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)
https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2022-10-07/lack-of…
# International, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Perrottet’s bid for end-of-year lift with stamp duty reform
Lucy Cormack The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Perrottet government will introduce its long-touted stamp duty overhaul to parliament this week, as it races to have the property taxation reform in place by mid-January. Legislation for the reform giving first home buyers the option of an annual tax instead of stamp duty will refocus the government’s policy agenda after months plagued by industrial warfare, the New York trade job scandal and a conga line of Coalition MPs bowing out before the March state election. If the reform passes both houses in the 15 remaining sitting days of the year, eligible buyers who purchase on or after January 16 will be able to pay an annual levy of $400 plus 0.3 per cent of the land value instead of stamp duty on properties worth up to $1.5 million. Also, read Ashleigh Raper's article entitled: 'NSW launches online calculator in a step towards stamp duty reform, but is yet to introduce bill' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-10/nsw-government-online-calculator-part-of-stamp-duty-reforms/101516674].
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/perrottet-s-bid-for-end-of-y…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, State Government, Tax.Uneven path to a decent home: Australians with a disability face battle for accessible housing
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)One of Tristan’s favourite pastimes is looking after his chickens. But between the back doorway of his community housing property and his chicken coop is a short, steep hill. In this space, he has fallen numerous times. ... For him a fully accessible house requires flat outdoor paths, ramps and level access to rooms, doorways wide enough for a wheelchair or walker, grab rails, and modified taps and light switches. When Tristan first moved into the Maitland community housing property, it did not have many of these features. He spent two years submitting requests for his housing provider, Hume Community Housing, to make alterations, only for the most significant ones to be ultimately rejected as too costly – a situation he describes as “stigmatising” and “dehumanising”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/oct/06/dehumanis…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Disability, Housing market, Personal stories.