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
Landlords demanding renters send photo, CV and character references
Miranda Bryant The Guardian (No paywall)Renters are being subjected to extreme vetting procedures by letting agents and landlords who are demanding personal statements – and even photographs – to choose between prospective tenants.
Amid the worst rental market conditions to date, campaigners say that letting agents and landlords are increasing the potential for discrimination by telling renters to submit personal biographies to try to sell themselves as desirable tenants.
Tenants are being encouraged to “put their best foot forward” by including as much personal information as possible in their applications, renters told the Observer, with details such as having attended Oxbridge or a Russell Group university and high salaries seen as an advantage.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/apr/09/landlords-demandin…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Housing market, International.Texas State Bill Targets Local Tenant Protections Against Eviction
Kriston Capps Bloomberg (No paywall)A bill before the Texas state legislature would block city and county governments from issuing new laws to restrict evictions or enforce existing local regulations, potentially affecting thousands of renters in Austin, Dallas and beyond.
The proposal comes in response to ordinances passed by those cities as well as San Marcos, a fast-growing Austin suburb, that require landlords to give tenants additional notice before they file an eviction in court. The authority to regulate evictions rests only with the state, according to the bill’s author, Texas State Representative Shelby Slawson, a Republican who represents a largely rural area west of Waco.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-05/as-texas-evic…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, International.In Seoul's 'piece rooms,' there's barely enough space to lie down. Inside South Korea's brutal housing crisis
Max Kim AOL (No paywall)Tucked in the back of a squat white building whose only other tenant is a soup kitchen, Yoon Yong-ju’s home is missing from the government property registry, but its placement and dimensions suggest that it was once a storage room.
Wondering how much longer he would be stuck here, Yoon, 60, surveyed the contents of the 35 or so square feet of space: wooden shelves holding a heap of medication, cardboard boxes stuffed with clothes, a refrigerator and a cluttered sideboard with a TV. In the middle was just enough space to lie down if Yoon, a double amputee, removed his prosthetic legs.
“The other residents call this a hotel room,” Yoon joked, pointing out the small luxuries that many in the neighborhood lack: an air conditioner, a large window, his own bathroom down the hall.
https://www.aol.com/news/seouls-piece-rooms-theres-barely-090055…
# Hot topic International, Housing affordability, International, Minimum habitability standards.'In a cost-of-living crisis, somebody should make it a priority to protect renters'
The Mirror (UK) (No paywall)I was gobsmacked when a pal told me she was made to pay to view a rental flat. When I asked her why she didn’t tell the estate agent where to go, she shrugged: 'That’s just how it is now'.
Who is standing up for renters? In the last year, something weird’s been happening – more and more of my friends, who’ve got stable jobs and decent incomes, are getting priced out of housing.
One said that her landlord had informed her that the rent was going up by 20%.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/in-cost-living-crisis-som…
# Hot topic International, Housing affordability, Housing market, International.Essential workers unable to afford to rent alone almost anywhere in Australia, report shows
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)Soaring rents have made living alone impossible for Australia’s essential workers: new research shows some would have to spend around two-thirds of their income to afford a place on their own.
Comparing the average weekly unit rents against award wages for 15 essential jobs, the national housing campaign Everybody’s Home found there were virtually no regions of Australia where a single full-time essential worker, such as those in aged care, early childhood or nursing, could afford to rent by themselves.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/11/essential…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Rents are at a record high across Australia, according to a new report
David Taylor ABC (No paywall)New data points to an alarming escalation in the cost of keeping a roof over your head, especially for renters.
"The country is experiencing the longest stretch of continuous rental price growth on record as house rents rise for the eighth consecutive quarter and unit rents for the seventh," real estate website Domain said in its quarterly rent report.
The lift in prices has produced record rental prices across the nation.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-06/australia-is-experiencing…
# Must read, Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Why are rents in Australia increasing? The root cause may be more to do with COVID than interest rates and immigration
Peter Martin ABC (No paywall)So, you think you know why rents climbed.
You probably think it was skyrocketing interest rates and a tsunami of migration.
It's true that interest rates have jumped more over the past year than at any time on record, and it's true that migration has roared back — in the six months to September 2022 (the latest month for which we've official figures) arrivals exceeded departures by 170,000.
But here's the thing. Advertised rents began climbing sharply in late 2021 — six months before the Reserve Bank began pushing up interest rates, and at a time when it was forecast not to.
And net migration was negative back when rents were taking off — the number of arrivals didn't even match the number of departures.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-12/why-rents-australia-incre…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.It's touted as one solution to Australia's housing crisis, but what is build-to-rent? And can it live up to the hype?
Dinah Lewis Boucher and Velvet Winter ABC (No paywall)Australia is in the grip of a housing crisis, hit by rising rents and falling vacancy rates.
Built-to-Rent is a form of rental housing relatively new to Australia.
A newly released Ernest & Young report, commissioned by the Property Council of Australia, says that support for build-to-rent housing could result in an additional 150,000 homes over the next 10 years.
However, some experts are concerned over the accessibility of build-to-rent properties for middle- and low-income earners.
Here's what you need to know.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-07/what-are-solutions-to-aus…
# Must read, Hot topic, TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.