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
Cyclone Ilsa: how disasters, the housing crisis and underinsurance can conspire to worsen inequality
Kate Booth The Conversation (No paywall)Most communities along the northwest coast of Western Australia appear to have dodged a bullet after Cyclone Ilsa made landfall overnight. While some structures, such as the Pardoo Roadhouse, were damaged, the destruction was less than we feared.
But unfortunately, there will be a next time. Climate change is predicted to bring increasingly severe and frequent weather events and disasters.
As those in recently flooded regions of New South Wales and Queensland know, it takes a long time to rebuild and recover from disasters. And alarmingly, our resilience is being undermined by the housing crisis, underinsurance and inadequate planning.
https://theconversation.com/cyclone-ilsa-how-disasters-the-housi…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Climate change, Housing affordability, Planning and development.The complete guide to your rights as a renter
Melissa Heagney and Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Many Australian renters are finding it difficult to find and keep a roof over their head amid the nation's rental crisis, making it increasingly important for them to know their rights.
Rental markets across the country have been recording ultra-low vacancy rates and rapidly rising rents – even for substandard homes – for months.
While a competitive market can make tenants wary of rocking the boat with their landlord, there are some protections in place to help those facing excessive rent increases or living in maintained properties.
https://www.nine.com.au/property/news/the-ultimate-guide-to-your…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Renters relying on hacks to dodge housing crisis, as advocates call for cultural change
Brianna Morris-Grant ABC (No paywall)Every time he rethinks living in a stranger's home, Nick McClure only has to look at the Sydney housing market.
The 29-year-old bank worker started house-sitting a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, thinking it was a loophole to staying with friends or paying for accommodation on a trip to Melbourne.
But with rental properties becoming scarce, what started as a travel hack has become an ongoing state of flux for Mr McClure.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-14/rental-market-house-sitti…
# Must read, Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Personal stories, Renting culture.‘Get out of the way’: Rose Jackson’s social housing warning for ‘anti-development’ Sydney suburbs
Tamsin Rose The Guardian (No paywall)Rose Jackson wants to make one thing very clear as she begins her new role as New South Wales’ housing minister: medium- and high-density social housing developments should be built in Sydney’s north shore and eastern suburbs.
And if the residents there don’t embrace them? Too bad.
As she grapples with just how ambitious she plans to set her targets and the levers she can pull to achieve them, Jackson said she hopes to bring the communities, described by some as anti-development, with her.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/13/rose-jack…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Rent, Planning and development, State Government.Elders' new homes to help address systemic overcrowding in Wilcannia
Bill Ormonde ABC (No paywall)For decades, the problem of overcrowding has plagued the town of Wilcannia in outback New South Wales, a systemic issue that attracted media attention during the predominantly Indigenous community's COVID outbreak of 2021.
While the spotlight has faded, the issue has remained.
The chair of the Wilcannia Local Aboriginal Land Council, Michael Kennedy, believed the living conditions were untenable.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-13/new-homes-in-wilcannia-ad…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Affordable housing.'It is getting worse': Rental crisis hits NSW's Hunter region
Sarah Swain 9 News (No paywall)A housing crisis in the NSW Hunter Region is becoming more pronounced with tenants forced to reckon with major rent hikes.
Industry bodies are calling for reform as a growing number of desperate renters say they face homelessness.
Nicholas Harrison has been a renter for more than 15 years but has now lost his home.
"I was on the lease for $600 a fortnight and she has put the rent up to over $800 a fortnight," he said.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/rental-crisis-nsw-hunter-regio…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Personal stories.Edward Eagar Centre: more than shelter for the homeless
Stephen Crafti The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)There are not too many buildings that combine two such contrasting architectural styles on one site.
However, the Wesley Edward Eagar Centre, in Sydney’s Surry Hills, features a sandstone church in a Greek-revival style, circa 1847, integrated with a seven-storey 1970s brutalist concrete tower.
While the strong juxtaposition of architecture could not be changed in the recent renovation of the centre for the homeless, it certainly had to be considered by the project’s architect.
“Our brief was to bring some dignity to those who might be staying there,” says architect Rodney Paesler, managing director of Scott Carver.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/edward-eagar-centre-mo…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Homelessness, Personal stories.$2000 a week for a two-bed flat? Agents asking inflated rental prices
Michael Koziol The Age (Paywall)Landlords and real estate agents are testing the limits of Sydney’s red-hot rental market by asking inflated prices that have to be quickly reduced to secure a tenant amid a rental crisis in which vacancy rates have plunged to 1 per cent.
But the head of the Real Estate Institute, which represents agents, blamed the practice on the previous NSW government’s decision to ban soliciting rental bids, saying it forced property owners to start high and work their way down instead.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/2000-a-week-for-a-two-bed…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.