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
Giving developers free rein isn’t the solution to the GTHA housing challenges
Mark Winfield The Conversation (No paywall)From Canada ... Recently, concerns have peaked over skyrocketing housing prices, the lack of affordable housing and intensive development pressures in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area (GTHA). The situation has prompted suggestion that the solution to these problems is to “Let Cities Sprawl” and “build baby, build!”
https://theconversation.com/giving-developers-free-rein-isnt-the…
# International, Affordable housing, Planning and development.Caught in the rental trap, we’re trying to turn our flat into a co-op. Here’s what we’ve learned
Ruby Lott-Lavigna The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... This kind of homeownership is a sustainable solution to the housing crisis – but it’s not easy in today’s property market. My home, like many people’s, is a place of solace and comfort. It’s somewhere I’ve worked through the end of a long-term relationship, hosted parties, waged an ongoing war with a squirrel in my garden and housed my extensive condiment collection. Despite my emotional ties to this place, I do not own it. Like the other 13 million people in the UK who rent from private landlords, that puts me in a permanently precarious situation. I am at the behest of a landlord, who can evict me for no reason, at any time. In this state of uncertainty, you can be reminded of your powerlessness at any moment. That moment came for me and my housemates towards the end of last year, when we found out that our landlords were considering selling. So what did three young professionals with no rich benefactors but an unusually large understanding of housing policy do? We decided to try to turn our house into a cooperative. The housing cooperative movement has become a striking alternative to a profit-driven housing market. [Read on]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/07/rental-tra…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent.Canberra remains most expensive city to rent as market tightens even further
Peter Lusted and Penny Travers ABC (No paywall)Canberra's notoriously tough rental market appears to have reached new heights after an "exceptionally busy" period over the traditionally quiet Christmas season. "Average rents continue to climb both for housing and for apartments, in fact, Canberra is the most expensive city to rent in Australia," said Hannah Gill from the Real Estate Institute of the ACT. ... The demand is also driving prospective renters to offer well above the advertised price, despite the fact rent bidding is illegal in the territory. ... Ms Gill warned the market would only get tighter as the sector prepared for the return of international students. ... "Student housing meets a certain demographic, but a lot of students will be looking for share-housing, larger established homes or apartment living off campus and there's just a real shortage to meet that need."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-07/canberra-rents-still-most…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Students.Housing unlocked in Cooma, creating blueprint for housing delivery across regional NSW
(No paywall)Families, people in need and local workers in Cooma are set for more housing options with up to 140 housing lots to be developed between the Monaro Highway and Polo Flat Road, thanks to the NSW Government. Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW Paul Toole said the Government land will be repurposed with the capacity to deliver more than 200 homes. “The land unlocked in Cooma has the potential to deliver hundreds of dwellings allowing families to enter the housing market, ease local housing stress, keep tradies on the tools on Snowy 2.0, and create new jobs when construction begins on these homes,” Mr Toole said. “The blocks will be a mixture of single dwellings, duplexes, social and affordable housing as well as key worker housing and will serve as a blueprint to unlock more government-owned land across regional NSW to ease housing stress.” (Department of Planning, Industry & Environment)
https://www.dpie.nsw.gov.au/news-and-events/articles/2022/housin…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market, Regional NSW.Housing fears damaging young people's mental health and affecting life decisions such as whether to have children, research suggests
Shamaan Freeman-Powell (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Four out of five young people worried about their future housing prospects say it is having an impact on major life decisions such as having children, according to research. A new report published by Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTV) suggests that bleak housing prospects are damaging young people's mental health and negatively affecting their life choices. For many young people, the idea of owning their own property is a dream - not a reality. (Sky News) You can read the same story in Grainne Cuppe's article entitled '"Bleak" housing prospects damaging young people’s mental health, report says' in 'Inside Housing' at: [https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/bleak-housing-prospects-damaging-young-peoples-mental-health-report-says-74200]
https://news.sky.com/story/housing-fears-damaging-young-peoples-…
# International, Families, Health, Home ownership, Housing market, Young people.Khan calls for register of foreign-owned UK properties to tackle money laundering
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)The London mayor is urging the government to set up a register of UK properties owned by companies and individuals that are based overseas, in a bid to tackle international money laundering. ... Many of these properties are also left empty at a time when thousands of Londoners are struggling to find a place to live, Mr Khan added. According to Land Registry data, collated by Transparency International, nearly quarter of a million properties in the UK are registered to overseas buyers, compared with fewer than 88,000 in 2010.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/khan-calls-for-register-of-…
# International, Housing market, Landlords and agents.‘Correction’: The banks are predicting the biggest housing crash in decades. But will they be right?
Matthew Elmas The New Daily (No paywall)There has been a big change in the outlook for house prices in the past week – two of Australia’s major banks are now predicting the biggest crash in decades. After two years of rapidly rising prices, most home owners have gained more wealth from their property than their jobs since COVID-19 started, with house prices skyrocketing more than 25 per cent in 2021 alone. But Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank now argue this record-shattering run is about to unravel into the biggest housing crash of our generation. Economists at both banks are predicting a 10 per cent fall in house prices next year, on the back of an expected interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2022/02/09/banks-hou…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Research reveals rental trends
Amy hall SBS (No paywall)New research led by the University of Adelaide is providing the first real insight into who rents in Australia, why they rent, and what condition the properties they rent are in. It’s hoped that the Australian Rental Housing Conditions Dataset can help in the fight to improve conditions for tenants. ... Leo Patterson Ross says it’s clear that the minimum standards for who can rent out a property and the condition that it’s leased in need to be lifted across the country.
https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/audio/research-reveals-r…
# TUNSW in the media, Audio Australia, Rent, Minimum habitability standards.