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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Homeless people can get two years of rent covered by the city of Thessaloniki
Denis Balgaranov The Mayor (No paywall)Last week, the municipality of Thessaloniki in Greece announced a new scheme aimed at the homeless. The scheme is called Στέγαση και Εργασία (Housing and Work). It involves the city covering the costs of renting an apartment on behalf of a homeless person for two years.
https://www.themayor.eu/en/a/view/homeless-people-can-get-two-ye…
# International, Rent, Homelessness, Housing affordability.Relentless Rents Leave Few Choices for Americans Relying on Assistance
Sarah Holder and Airielle Lowe Bloomberg (No paywall)Government programs designed to support the lowest-income Americans have been no match for the relentless post-Covid US rental market.
Already plagued by years-long wait times, those who receive so-called Section 8 housing choice vouchers are struggling to use them to find apartments with rents at or near records nationwide. While demand for assistance soared to historic levels in 2022, the share of tenants successfully finding housing dropped, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which funds the program that supports more than 2 million households annually.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-05/relentless-re…
# International, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing affordability.NSW Labor unveils plan to help tenants have pets in rental properties
Bridget Murphy ABC (No paywall)Arabella Harvey-Walker is on the hunt for a new home in Sydney's inner-west, but she's struggling to find a place that will let her pup Penny come with her.
Currently in NSW, landlords can decline a tenant's request to have pets in their home without a specific reason, and do not have a prescribed time frame in which to consider a request.
See TUNSW's response: https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/pitter-patter-towards-pet-friendly-homes
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-08/nsw-labor-plan-to-help-re…
# New policy announcement NSW, State Government.Sydney rental prices sit above national average, bucking national trend
Eli Green news.com.au (No paywall)Sydneysiders have seen their weekly rental cost climb yet again, despite new figures revealing prices have stalled in most other cities across the country.
The average cost of renting a dwelling in Sydney has risen by 1.8 per cent in the December quarter, the second highest lift in prices across the country after Melbourne, where rent rose 2.3 per cent according to the latest PropTrack report.
Nationally, prices have remained the same at an average of $480 per week, while the cost of a dwelling in Sydney has reached $560 per week – a 7.7 per cent increase from the end of 2021.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/sydne…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.The CBD is dead. Long live the Central Social District
Rob Stokes The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Our central business districts aren’t going to bounce back from COVID. Office vacancy rates in the CBDs of Sydney and Parramatta remain stubbornly high. And ideas such as forcing people back to the office five days a week, or Inner West Council’s proposal to charge higher rates for landlords who can’t get tenants, aren’t going to put things back the way they used to be.
https://amp-smh-com-au.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.smh.com.au/nat…
# NSW, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government, Sydney.‘Don’t trot out the garbage’: Struggling renter’s scathing letter to PM Anthony Albanese
Chloe Whelan news.com.au (No paywall)A struggling renter who’s been forced to live in his car for five months wrote to the PM – and says he received a “pathetic” response.
A renter on the NSW north coast who has been living in his car for five months has written a scathing letter to the Prime Minister amid soaring rental prices – and was directed to welfare agencies in response.
In the letter, which was addressed directly to Anthony Albanese, father-of-two Michael Collier outlined how quickly his life was derailed when his former landlord decided to put his rent up by a whopping $150 a week, a cost he simply couldn’t afford.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/markets/dont-trot-out-the-garbag…
# NSW, Rent, Federal Government, Personal stories.Sydney tenant admits in social media post to paying zero rent by subletting to housemates
Paige Cockburn ABC (No paywall)As rental prices continue to climb in Sydney, one inner-west tenant has sparked outrage online after revealing they had been living for free while unsuspecting housemates picked up the bill.
See also:
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/sydney-renter-admits-to-living-for-free-while-subtenants-cover-the-rent/news-story/cf805a60170b1fb700ecbf532cb94ea9
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-17/sydney-tenant-subletting-…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Landlords and agents, Sub-letting.TikTokers Are Revealing The Abject Chaos Of Finding A Place In The Sydney Rental Market RN
Soaliha Iqbal Pedestrian (No paywall)The Sydney rental market is always an absolute shitshow but a slew of frustrated TikToks by tenants looking for a home really shows just how dire things are right now.
If you live in Sydney and are on TikTok as much as I am, chances are you’ve noticed an influx of videos on your feed of painfully long lines for absurdly overpriced properties.
One user shared a video of a line of prospective tenants for a rental inspection which wound all the way out of the building and down a street. Just when you think the line ends, it keeps going?!