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
No relief for tenants as Australian vacancy rate falls in January, with Sydney worst hit
Claire Keenan The Guardian (No paywall)January provided no relief for tenants looking for a place to live as the number of vacant homes fell nationally, with Sydney worst hit, new data has revealed. The national rental vacancy rate was at 1.09% in January, falling 0.04 percentage points over the month, according to the latest PropTrack Market Insight report. It was 0.26 percentage points lower year-on-year. Capital cities drove the fall, dropping 0.08 percentage points over the first month of the year. It was the second-lowest level on record for the combined capital cities in January, the PropTrack economist and report author Anne Flaherty said.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/07/australia…
# Hot topic Australia, .Half of US tenants can’t afford to pay their rent. Here’s what’s ahead
Anna Bahney CNN News (No paywall)Washington, DC: Half of renters in the United States have found themselves paying more than they can afford, following years of surging rents. But an increase in the construction of multiple-unit buildings has boosted the supply of apartments, which is slowly beginning to rein in runaway rents.
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/30/economy/rent-prices-dropping-…
# Hot topic International, .AirBnB listing offering three tents in living room amid rental crisis: 'WTF'
Yahoo News (No paywall)Aussies looking for a rental property right now are aware of some of the shocking opportunism popping up in listings – but it's certainly not just a problem in Australia.
A photo from a listing in London has highlighted just how bad things are getting for desperate renters in that city. With prices for renting a room in the British capital soaring, Londoners are reportedly becoming quite inventive with their living space with one Airbnb owner offering to let people stay in “romantic” tents inside their living room, and opening it up to long term tenants.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/three-tents-in-living-room-short-term-…
# Must read, Hot topic International, Rent, Security and safety.‘Secure, affordable homes are the stuff of fiction’: how young writers are responding to the UK housing crisis
Keiran Goddard The Guardian (No paywall)From Hunger Games-style viewings to greedy landlords and grim flatshares, young people aren’t just coping with a broken property market, they are writing about it. Anyone who has lived in a house share will know the feeling of having to creep around your own home as though you aren’t really supposed to be there – the endless micro negotiations, real and imagined, that characterise living situations that are governed by necessity rather than choice.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/03/secure-affordable-…
# Must read, Hot topic International, .‘Don’t even bother applying’: Most expensive place to live in NZ
Annemarie Quill Stuff (No paywall)Bay of Plenty couple Kaysi and Sam Fredericks have viewed more than 100 houses in the last few months in their hunt for a home, as prices soar in what is now the most expensive region in Aotearoa.
“One agent told me don’t even bother applying. A viewing we turned up at had three streets lined with parked cars of other hopefuls. It’s impossible. Sam broke down in tears at one house. People don’t realise how hard it is here,” Kaysi Fredericks told Stuff.
Rental prices across Aotearoa are at record highs, but renters in the Bay of Plenty are feeling the most pain as it has now overtaken Auckland as the priciest region.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350166487/dont-even-bother-apply…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Canada limits international student numbers after backlash over rising rents
Aiden Reiter and Jaren Kerr Financial Times (No paywall)The Canadian government is curbing the growth in the number of foreign students in the country, as they are increasingly blamed for a housing affordability crisis. Canada, which has a reputation for being welcoming to newcomers, has placed a two-year cap on the number of international students it will grant visas to. In 2024 and 2025, all provinces are required to collectively reduce the international student population by 35 per cent, amounting to 210,000 fewer students. The cap excludes students pursuing masters and doctoral degrees.
https://www.ft.com/content/085cda38-9060-4da1-8532-1a3af9cd7e58
# Hot topic International, .Two-thirds of Canadian and American renters are in unaffordable housing situations
Grant Alexander Wilson and Tyler Case The Conversation (No paywall)Even as housing markets cool in some areas, housing affordability in Canada is the worst in over four decades due, in part, to sustained post-pandemic inflation and comparatively higher interest rates. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation — the federal Crown corporation responsible for administering Canada’s National Housing Act — affordability is defined as mortgage or rent payments that do not exceed more than 30 per cent of a household’s gross monthly income.
If a family makes $50,000 per year before taxes, for instance, anything more than $15,000 per year (or $1,250 per month) spent on rent would put them in an unaffordable situation.
https://theconversation.com/two-thirds-of-canadian-and-american-…
# Hot topic International, Rent.England’s largest council considers closing housing waiting list
James Riding Inside Housing (Soft Paywall)Leaders of Birmingham City Council are discussing the dramatic move as they struggle to process a backlog of tens of thousands of applications for social homes. Confirming the plan was on the table, the local authority told Inside Housing it currently has more than 23,000 households on its housing register, as well as 11,000 applications to the housing register that are yet to be assessed. The register receives more than 400 new applications a week, while Birmingham Council is only able to allocate 2,000 to 3,000 social homes to applicants in a typical year.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/englands-largest-council-co…
# Hot topic International, Public and community housing.