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
Sydney Lays Housing Crisis Solution at BtR’s Feet
Renee McKeown The Urban Developer (No paywall)Build-to-rent and co-living apartments could be the solution to curbing a growing number of empty investment properties across Sydney, according to the city. The City of Sydney and North Sydney council areas have the highest level of “inactive” houses in the city’s greater region, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. To stem this tide, the City of Sydney wants to boost floorspace for new and converted build-to-rent towers from 20 to 75 per cent, and give 20 per cent more to co-living accommodation.
https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/sydney-build-to-rent-…
# Hot topic NSW, .Renters go bush to buy a slice of sunshine
Jo Lauder ABC (No paywall)The first hint of the Haystacks Solar Farm near Grong Grong, about five-and-a-half hour’s drive from Sydney, is a subtle glint of sunshine as it bounces off the PV panels. A plot on Gemma Purcell’s land the “size of a Bunnings car park” now hosts several rows of solar panels with the capacity to generate 1.5 megawatts of electricity. But it’s not its size or the technology of her solar farm that makes it special.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-23/australia-s-first-solar-g…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.Housing wait times top five years in parts of NSW
Luke Costin Canberra Times (No paywall)Women and children are being forced to choose between sleeping in a car or returning to a dangerous home because of a lack of social housing in NSW, a peak body says. Analysis of Australia's largest social housing system illustrates a stubbornly large applicant list and growing wait times since June. The average "priority" applicant waits 14 weeks for a home. "It means domestic violence survivors are forced to choose between sleeping in a vehicle or returning to a dangerous home," Homelessness NSW chief executive Dom Rowe said on Wednesday.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8603421/housing-wait-time…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing, Rent.New data confirms NSW property affordability is failing renters
7 News (No paywall)VIDEO: This is the worst time to rent a home in NSW, according to new data. It confirmed what renters have been feeling for months, with affordability falling to the lowest level in history, and at least three quarters of all properties simply out of reach.
# Hot topic, Video NSW, Rent.Rental prices in NSW are at an all-time high. So, when will we see relief?
Rhiannon Lewin 7 News (No paywall)A grim outlook for NSW renters has been revealed by experts, who have said the current competitive and record-breaking rental market may not ease for at least another year. Paul Ryan from PropTrack said while demand for housing in NSW has always been very strong, it has skyrocketed in the past years since the COVID pandemic. “At the moment, NSW remains the least affordable state to rent in across the country,” he told 7NEWS.com.au.
https://7news.com.au/news/rental-prices-in-nsw-are-at-an-all-tim…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.How much your rent will rise this year: every NSW suburb revealed
Aidan Devine & Taylor Troeth Daily Telegraph (Paywall)Sydney tenants could be stung with rent rises of up to $400 a week this year – even for units well outside the inner city – as declining rental supply and surging demand heat the market to a boiling point.
One of the growing issues for tenants is that cash strapped landlords are selling their properties to combat interest rate hikes, with distressed sales surging over the past year. This has been accelerating the decline in rental supply. Projections from research group Suburbtrends revealed house rents across the average Australian suburb would rise 11 per cent for the year, while unit rents would leap up an average 27 per cent. More extreme rental increases were expected in Sydney’s southwest, Parramatta region and southern suburbs, the modelling showed.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/property/how-much-your-rent-wi…
# Hot topic NSW, .Love it or hate it, Sirius lives to tell a new chapter in Sydney’s history
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The controversial conversion of the former public housing block Sirius into luxury housing was never going to slip under the radar, with its new copper living pods visible to anyone heading south on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. To be completed in June at a cost of about $150 million, the conversion of the 79 public housing flats into 75 high-end apartments – topped by a penthouse now selling for $50 million – was the most complex project undertaken by its builders, architects and developer.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/love-it-or-hate-it-sirius-li…
# Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing.Jordan van den Berg: The 'Robin Hood' TikToker taking on Australian landlords
Tiffanie Turnbull BBC (No paywall)Three years ago, lawyer Jordan van den Berg was an obscure TikTok creator who made videos that mocked real estate agents. But today the 28-year-old is one of the most high-profile activists in Australia. Posting under the moniker Purple Pingers, Mr van den Berg has been taking on the nation's housing crisis by highlighting shocking renting conditions, poor behaviour from landlords, and what he calls government failures. It is his vigilante-style approach - which includes helping people find vacant homes to squat in, and exposing bad rentals in a public database - that has won over a legion of fans. Some have dubbed him the Robin Hood of renters.
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Rent.