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
Sydney renter hit by 35% hike as housing crisis sparks calls to cap increases
Mostafa Rachwani The Guardian (No paywall)Millie Bannister was already anxious about how much the rental market had skyrocketed in Sydney when she received a letter from her landlord saying they wanted to increase her rent by 35%.
“Last time, it only increased by $60, but now it’s going to increase by $270 a week, which is a 35% increase, and around $12,000 per year. For me and my roommate, two people in their mid-20s, it is not [easy] to wrangle with.”
The 26-year-old heads up the mental health charity Allknd, and says the rent increase will change her life and her aspirations, amid calls for the state government to consider regulating rent caps.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/04/sydney-re…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Rent, Housing affordability, Landlords and agents.‘Pretty bleak for tenants’: Rental vacancy rate at record low
Jim Malo and Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Australia’s rental vacancy rate has returned to a record low, and experts and advocates warn it will only make life harder for renters.
Just 0.8 per cent of rental properties were available to lease nationally in January, and the level in both Sydney and Melbourne fell to 1 per cent, a record low for Melbourne and an equal record for Sydney.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/pretty-bleak-for-tenants-re…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Landlords and agents.NSW government response to over-55s homelessness inquiry condemned by advocates
Kelly Fuller ABC (No paywall)Lyn Bailey thought she was luckier than most people facing homelessness because she had her car to sleep in.
After working for 50 years, at the age of 73 Ms Bailey's marriage broke down and she could not find an affordable place to rent in the Illawarra region of coastal New South Wales.
"I'd line up to inspect places and someone behind you would say, 'Oh, yes. We are prepared to pay an extra $100 a week if we can get this place'," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-04/nsw-government-condemned-…
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Rent, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Older people, State Government, Strong communities.Perrottet favours idea to allow older people to rent rooms to the young
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says a proposal for older people to let out spare rooms to younger renters desperate for affordable housing should be explored, but without hurting pensioner tax arrangements.
Amid a rental crisis across the state, a team at SGS Economics and Planning has suggested setting up an app to match a younger person who needs somewhere to live with an older person or couple in possession of a spare room.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/perrottet-favours-idea-to-al…
# New policy announcement NSW, Share houses, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Older people, Young people.Labor puts north, inner west metro stops up for higher density housing
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)NSW Labor would rip up existing plans for housing development at metro stations and redo them with significantly higher density closer to central Sydney to rebalance population growth around infrastructure.
Opposition planning spokesman Paul Scully said the $65 billion metro network was an important addition to Sydney’s connectivity, but it was “a huge price tag” and for that cost, the metro must become the spine of a sensible increase in new housing.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/labor-puts-north-inner-west-…
# New policy announcement NSW, Housing affordability, Planning and development, State Government.Greens vow action as huge rent hikes see adults forced to move back in with parents
Tamsin Rose The Guardian (No paywall)Jeremy Bryant wasn’t expecting to be moving back in with his parents just a few weeks after turning 30.
But that’s where the successful musician and university student now finds himself, along with his little brother, after the rent on their Redfern home was raised by $110 a week.
Hit with news of the impending jump just before Christmas, Bryant told his agent they could only add an extra $80 on top of the $650 they were already paying each week, but would still struggle.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/07/greens-vo…
# New policy announcement NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, State Government.Inside the old Sydney hotel that’s changing lives
Sue Williams The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)It’s an old hotel set to be redeveloped to bookend the huge $3 billion Central Place Sydney project but, inside, lives are being changed, one day at a time.
While the developer TOGA Group is waiting for the planning permissions to come through for the former post office building, later turned into an apartment hotel, they’ve opened it up as accommodation for at-risk homeless young people and refugees, mostly from Ukraine.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/inside-the-old-sydney-hotel…
# NSW, Homelessness, Planning and development.Housing summit looks at ways to solve Illawarra crisis
Natalie Croxon Illawarra Mercury (Paywall)Why are you here?
That was the question Michele Adair, chief executive officer of the Housing Trust, put to the 100-plus people who attended the Confront the Crisis housing summit on Tuesday.
The event was a call to action in the face of a worsening crisis gripping the Illawarra and Shoalhaven, where 22,700 very low to moderate income households are experiencing household stress and a growing number are waiting for social housing.
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/8076091/what-needs-to-…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Planning and development, State Government.