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
British TikToker slams ‘crazy’ Sydney rental crisis where queues to view listings run ‘down the street’
Frank Chung news.com.au (No paywall)A British TikToker who moved to Sydney last year with “no idea” there was a rental crisis has warned others not to follow suit if they “think it’s going to be easy” finding a place to live. London local Ellie went viral in December with a video documenting her struggles finding an apartment, comparing securing a lease in Sydney to The Hunger Games.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/british-tikt…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.Video: Committee concerned young people will leave Sydney en masse
ABC (No paywall)On current trends, less than half of the children born in 2024 in Sydney will ever own a home, according to the Committee for Sydney.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-05/committee-concerned-young…
# Hot topic, Video NSW, .Meadowbank’s density alarmed north shore residents, but locals say ‘it’s lovely’
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)Three-and-a-half years ago, Margaret and Ian Mears downsized to Meadowbank, near Ryde. They swapped their house on the Central Coast for an apartment on the banks of the Parramatta River, and they haven’t looked back. “It’s lovely here,” says Margaret, 82. “You’ve got ferries into town, you’ve got buses and you’ve got the train – every kind of transport. It’s very cosmopolitan, and that’s fine. It’s very green and leafy.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/meadowbank-s-density-alarmed…
# Hot topic NSW, .Shocking sight in affluent Sydney suburb
Yahoo News (No paywall)A new homelessness encampment, known by inhabitants as “Wayside After Hours,” has sprung up in one of Sydney’s most affluent suburbs. Tucked underneath the awnings of the empty Metro Minerva Theatre Building in Potts Point is a burgeoning camp for the area’s rough sleepers, with up to eight people taking shelter there every night. The makeshift Orwell St home boasts two mattresses, a large tent for storage and about 20 sleeping bags, which are lent to fellow rough sleepers as needed.
Propped on a wall is a framed print which reads: “Home is where the heart is”.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/heartbreaking-story-behind-shock-pictu…
# Must read NSW, Security and safety.Philip has been waiting 10 years for strata to fix a leak in his apartment
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)For a decade Philip Baigent endured water pooling on his balcony and leaking into his flat, warping the floorboards and causing mould. He is now living in a short-term rental apartment in Ramsgate, 20 kilometres from his home in Surry Hills, waiting for the strata committee to fix the problem.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/philip-has-been-waiting-10-y…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Repairs, Strata.Sydney at risk of being like San Francisco, Mookhey warns
Jordan Baker The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Treasurer Daniel Mookhey warns a failure to act swiftly on housing affordability will lead Sydney down the path of San Francisco, where middle-class workers with suits and iPhones are queuing for food and living in homeless shelters. In a rare foray into housing policy, Mookhey said the city had a five- to 10-year window to avert a landed gentry situation, in which only those with family money could afford property and education was no longer an equaliser.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-at-risk-of-being-like…
# Hot topic NSW, .‘This is going to be devastating’: North shore begins its resistance to housing policy
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)North shore residents and representatives have launched a campaign of resistance against the state government’s plans to increase housing density, accusing Premier Chris Minns of “trying to cause trouble” by rushing through changes. At a special community meeting on Wednesday night, senior Ku-ring-gai Council officers showed residents photographs of apartment blocks in Meadowbank and Burwood, and warned that was the north shore’s future under the government’s policies.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/this-is-going-to-be-devastat…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.Cost of negative gearing and other rental deductions soaring, Australian Treasury data reveals
Peter Hannam The Guardian (No paywall)Concessions for superannuation cost the federal budget almost $50bn a year while rental deductions, much of them for negative gearing, have jumped by more than half in three years, the annual Treasury summary of tax expenditures shows.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/31/cost-of-n…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Rent.