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
With Cases Piling Up, an Eviction Crisis Unfolds Step by Step
Sophie Kasakove The New York Times (Paywall)From the United States ... In Indianapolis, eviction courts are packed as judges make their way through a monthslong backlog of cases. In Detroit, advocates are rushing to knock on the doors of tenants facing possible eviction. In Gainesville, Fla., landlords are filing evictions at a rapid pace as displaced tenants resort to relatives’ couches for places to sleep or seek cheaper rents outside the city. It is not the sudden surge of evictions that tenants and advocates feared after the Supreme Court ruled in August that President Biden’s extension of the eviction moratorium was unconstitutional. Instead, what’s emerging is a more gradual eviction crisis that is increasingly hitting communities across the country, especially those where the distribution of federal rental assistance has been slow, and where tenants have few protections.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/07/us/evictions-crisis-us.html
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Housing market.Privacy Commissioner cracks down on rental sector: What landlords can and can't ask
Anne Gibson (No paywall)From New Zealand ... Landlords mainly owned one to two properties "and there will be some who don't get the message", he warned. Property owners can't ask tenants for information on personal characteristics protected under the Human Rights Act. That includes asking about relationships or family status, political opinion or religious or ethical belief, colour, race or ethnicity, physical or mental disability or illness and age except whether the tenant is over 18. Nor can landlords collect information about employment status or whether someone is unemployed, on a benefit or on ACC, sexual orientation or gender identity, whether tenants have experienced or suffering current family violence, spending habits like asking for bank statements showing transactions, employment history or social media URLs. (New Zealand Herald)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/privacy-commissioner-cracks-…
# International, Privacy and access, Rent, Landlords and agents.How our cities work: essential lessons from lockdown
Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)As Melbourne and Sydney roar back to life it might be tempting to forget all about the lockdowns of 2021. But the pandemic drew attention to vulnerabilities in our two biggest cities that often remain invisible. It would be foolish to ignore them. Cities are always marked by differences of wealth and income. But the lockdowns shone new light on stark geographical inequalities in Melbourne and Sydney. ... The pandemic has drawn attention to where our essential workers live. Holloway found that in Sydney it’s mostly in the city’s west and south-west, while in Melbourne, the highest proportion of essential workers reside in the north and west growth areas on the city’s outer edges. These locations also recorded a high share of infections during this year’s Delta outbreak. Sydney’s west and south-west also experienced the most stringent lockdown restrictions. A key reason for the high concentration of essential workers in those places is the cost of housing. A growing share of essential workers on middle and lower incomes has had little choice but to locate in outer metropolitan growth areas where housing is more affordable.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/how-our-cities-work-…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Housing market.‘I would end up on the street’: Pensioner in legal fight with Gerry Harvey’s trust over home eviction
Charlotte Grieve The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A terminally ill woman has taken on business tycoon Gerry Harvey with a lawsuit to fight a forced eviction from a property that she lived in rent-free with her now deceased husband for more than eight years. ... In an affidavit, Mr Harvey claims the property was never intended for Ms Luker to remain in permanently and while sympathetic to her situation, he now wishes to sell the property. Whether Ms Luker has any legal claim to the land will now be decided by the courts. Ben Butler writes in 'The Guardian' on the same matter at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/09/gerry-harvey-taken-to-court-by-longtime-friends-widow-in-bid-to-stop-eviction]
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/i-would-end-up-on-the-…
# NSW, Eviction, Personal stories.What the Barefoot Investor wants you to know about preparing for fires and floods
Patrick Wright ABC (No paywall)"A lot of people are underinsured. They don't have enough insurance when catastrophe hits," Mr Pape says. "When you're in that situation, you don't get back to normal because you don't have enough money." If you've never experienced a fire or flood first-hand, disasters can seem like an abstract risk. But they do happen — and it pays to be prepared.
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/insurance-how-to-prepare-for-flo…
# Australia, Housing market.How to protect yourself from dodgy builders and defects ruining your dream home
Adam Langenberg ABC (No paywall)Building a home can be a stressful time, made more anxiety-inducing if you end up locked in a legal battle over defects instead of moving into the dream home you'll be paying off for decades. Stories of home builders failing to deliver continue to surface, with multiple homeowners telling of issues that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix, or problems so bad their new home needs to be demolished.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-09/tas-how-to-prevent-a-dodg…
# Australia, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Unprecedented land price increase provokes division across society.
Karl Fitzgerald Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)Friday’s national accounts revealed a record land price increase of $1.72 trillion. That is a 27.6 per cent increase in land values in one year — almost three times the previous record. This has never been seen before and hopefully will never be repeated. ... One thing is certain, land owners enjoy the gains of any government support offered to the market. These huge numbers are hard to fathom. ABS data is typically more conservative than other measures, with it based on council site valuations. The windfall to land holders equated to 86 years of national banking profits. Land prices increased by more in a year than the entire value of all of Australia’s wealthiest companies, as measured by the market capitalisation of the ASX. But yet not one major news channel has reported on it. ... Australia’s land and housing debate is dominated by the need for added supply to address affordability pressures. The pandemic induced hit to net migration of -95,300 was equivalent to an extra 36,653 homes becoming available to the market. Instead of this added supply reducing pressure on land and housing prices, we saw a record surge. This should strike a note of caution at the incessant call for more land rezonings.
https://johnmenadue.com/unprecedented-land-price-increase-provok…
# Australia, Housing market.Premier should not be deterred from bold move on tax reform
Editorial The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)While, in many respects, Premier Dominic Perrottet wants to continue the policies of his predecessor Gladys Berejiklian, he made it plain on Thursday that he is taking a much bolder approach on a crucial issue of economic reform. Mr Perrottet, at his first estimates hearing as Premier, declared that he was committed to replacing the current system of one-off stamp duty with an annual land tax. ... As the NSW productivity commission said in a white paper in June, stamp duty is the most inefficient way to raise tax because it is a tax on moving homes. It discourages existing home owners from moving when they have the opportunity to live in a new place, such as when they want to take up a work opportunity or move closer to family. It discourages empty nesters looking to downsize.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/premier-should-not-be-deterr…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, Tax.