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
‘I’m obviously not first choice’: rental crisis forcing older Australians back into share houses
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)At 51, Mandy Pritchard does not want to live in a share house, but the unfolding rental crisis means the full-time worker may have to.
It’s a situation the Reserve Bank governor, Philip Lowe, suggested more people would need to consider to bring rents down – telling Australians on Wednesday “we need more people on average to live in each dwelling”.
After splitting with her partner of 19 years, Pritchard – an NGO worker – wants to move from Melbourne to be closer to friends in Sydney or Wollongong, and is being forced to apply for share houses.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/31/im-obviou…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Older people.Labor and the Greens don’t get along. Here’s why
Mark Kenny The Conversation (No paywall)Relations between a centrist Labor government feeling its way and an ascendant Greens party have become surprisingly strained of late.
The rancorous tone of public exchanges reveals deep-seated enmities born of an increasingly direct electoral contest in the inner cities, legitimate policy differences, and a hyper-sensitivity to criticisms made of each other.
A current flashpoint is Labor’s housing policy, or, as the Greens would describe it, Labor’s failure to square up to a full-blown rental affordability crisis.
https://theconversation.com/labor-and-the-greens-dont-get-along-…
# Hot topic Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, Housing affordability.How gentrified is your postcode? Search our map of Australia’s capital cities
Josh Nicholas The Guardian (No paywall)More than a third of Sydney and Adelaide suburbs and a quarter in Brisbane are affordable only to the most wealthy, and Hobart and Melbourne are following a similar path, analysis of census data on income and housing costs has found. Almost half of Darwin suburbs are either at risk or already well on the way to being “gentrified”, with a similar figure in Perth.
Researchers at the Australian Urban Observatory, who created a gentrification index from the data, say many of the areas most at risk of being gentrified are relatively recent greenfield areas in what were once outer suburbs, where many lower income families were able to find affordable housing. These families now run the risk of being displaced even farther afield.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/08/how-gentr…
# Must read, Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, Planning and development.‘Defies logic’: How much income buyers need to purchase a typical house
Melissa Heagney-Bayliss Domain (No paywall)Sydney house hunters need to earn more than $250,000 to borrow enough to purchase a typical home, while their Melbourne counterparts need almost $180,000, making homeownership near impossible for the average Australian.
The sizeable sums needed to secure and service a loan for a median-priced house are the result of 11 cash rate rises since May last year, which have slashed buyer borrowing power faster than prices and increased mortgage costs.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/defies-logic-how-much-incom…
# Hot topic Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Brisbane renter wins right to have Chihuahua under Queensland's new tenancy laws
Jessica Black ABC (No paywall)A Brisbane renter whose agent refused her request to a get a Chihuahua because the property was not big enough has won her appeal, in one of the first tests of Queensland's new pet laws.
Since October last year, a landlord must give a reason for refusing a tenant's request to have a pet — and those reasons are laid out in legislation.
They include if the animal is dangerous, the property is unsuitable because of its size and security or if it's not allowed under body corporate by-laws.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-06/test-of-queensland-s-new-…
# Hot topic Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Personal stories.California tenant eviction protection bill advances, but watered down amid landlord opposition Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article275764546.html#storylink=cpy
Lindsey Holden The Sacramento Bee (No paywall)A bill to shore up eviction protections for tenants survived the California Senate Wednesday, but only after real estate interests forced the removal of several significant provisions.
The measure, from Sen. María Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, advanced to the Assembly on a 21-12 vote, the minimum majority required for passage. It moved forward despite fierce opposition from the California Apartment Association, realtors and mortgage bankers.
Durazo authored the measure to strengthen the state’s existing system of renter rights laws, passed in 2019 with Assembly Bill 1482. It established a framework of “just cause” eviction rules governing when and how landlords can legally terminate a lease.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/ar…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Campaigns and law reform, International.There Are Better Ways to Solve a Housing Crisis Than This
Mara Gay The New York Times (No paywall)Politicians in New York, faced with a housing crisis that has driven more than 80,000 people into homeless shelters and renters to the brink, are simply throwing up their hands.
In Albany, state legislators appear prepared to go home this month without having delivered on a single major piece of legislation to ease the crisis.
At City Hall, Mayor Eric Adams, overwhelmed by the record numbers of people experiencing homelessness, is now seeking to do away with the city’s 42-year-old mandate in which anyone in need who asks for it has enjoyed the right to shelter.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/04/opinion/new-york-housing-migr…
# Must read, Hot topic International, Campaigns and law reform, Homelessness, International.Housing supply plunging and surging unequally in various part of USA
Realty Plus Realty Plus (No paywall)Mortgage rates at 20-year highs have split the US housing market, with supply plunging in some parts of the US, while the number of homes for sale surges in others. Home inventory fell in 21 out of 50 of the largest metropolitan cities last month. San Jose, California saw the steepest decline with 35% fewer active listings in May compared to the same month last year. That was followed by Sacramento, California with 27% fewer listings compared to May 2022, and Hartford, Connecticut with 26% fewer listings.
But while home inventory has continued to fall off in certain areas, supply has surged in other pockets of the US, mainly in the South. Active listings in the region jumped 54% in May compared to last year, though overall housing supply is still 41% lower than it was before the pandemic. Nashville, Tennessee led the wave of new inventory that has hit the Southern housing market, with listings growing 124% from last year. Listings in Austin, Texas grew 113%, while listings in San Antonio, Texas grew 93%, the report said.
https://www.rprealtyplus.com/international/housing-supply-plungi…
# Hot topic International, Housing market, International, Planning and development.