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
Can an owners corporation legally mandate vaccination in a strata community?
Lehana De Silva and Justin Abi-Daher Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Recently, a residential complex in Sydney informed residents it would be requiring that all persons entering the building must be vaccinated, which raises the question can an owners corporation mandate vaccination for residents of an apartment building (owners and tenants)? In this blog Lehana De Silva, Tenants' Union of NSW, and Justin Abi Daher, Marrickville Legal Centre, look at the issue of vaccine mandating in strata communities from a legal perspective.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/can-owners-corporation-legally-m…
# NSW, Strata, Coronavirus COVID-19.How lawyers could prevent America’s eviction crisis from getting a whole lot worse
Jennifer Prusak The Conversation (No paywall)From the United States ... Lawyers may be the only thing standing in the way of eviction for millions of renters. With the end of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium on Aug. 26, 2021, most landlords can now ask courts to evict tenants who haven’t been paying their rent. As a result, new eviction filings are already spiking across the country. Data shows that once an eviction court begins a case, it’s very likely the tenant will quickly be out on the street – unless they have legal representation.
https://theconversation.com/how-lawyers-could-prevent-americas-e…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Coronavirus COVID-19.Low availability of housing is driving wealth inequality across Australia, experts say
Bianca Healey (No paywall)Demand is outpacing supply for public housing across Australia, new figures show, as soaring property prices and a tightening rental market across regional Australia has led to what some experts are calling a “crisis.” ... Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA) NSW cited internal modelling that showed NSW has a shortage of at least 70,000 social housing dwellings. ... Leo Patterson Ross, chief executive of the Tenant’s Union of NSW told Business Insider Australia it had witnessed skyrocketing rental stress since the start of the pandemic. The Tenant’s Union was increasingly hearing it was leading members to make difficult decisions in order to be able to stay in their property. ... Ross said one way to redress this imbalance was for the government to build a supply of affordable housing to create stable “availability and pricing” outside of the current market. “Because there’s no genuine competition for landlords, particularly [on] the low end of the private market, there’s very little competition that would change their behaviour and make them work to keep their tenants,” Ross said. “A big supply of genuinely affordable housing would provide that competition.”
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/housing-availability-public-h…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Families, Housing market.Isn’t it time the federal government stepped up on social housing and its implications
Alan Morris The Fifth Estate (No paywall)In a recent speech at a property developer forum, Jason Falinski, a Sydney Liberal Party MP and chair of the Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue’s Inquiry into housing affordability and supply in Australia, commented that “Since World War Two, housing commission has had a lot of negative impact on vulnerable communities and I query whether building it actually helps people in challenged communities.” ... Judging by the federal government’s abysmal lack of support for social housing since regaining power in 2013, it would appear that Mr Falinski’s views are generally shared by his colleagues. Unfortunately, this perspective translates into a desperately poor performance nationally with respect to expanding the number of social housing dwellings.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/isnt-it-time-the-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Federal Government.Berlin’s vote to take properties from big landlords could be a watershed moment
Alexander Vasudevan The Guardian (No paywall)With coalition talks that could last months under way to form Germany’s next government, the reverberations of Sunday’s election will be felt for quite a while. But one of the most significant developments in voters’ weekend trip to the polls was a local referendum in Berlin, which strongly endorsed a campaign to expropriate properties owned by large corporate landlords. More than a million Berliners supported the campaign Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co, which targeted companies holding 3,000 or more apartments (Deutsche Wohnen is one of the largest investment trusts in the city). In total, 240,000 properties, or 11% of all apartments in Berlin, would come under the terms of the initiative, which was backed by a majority of 56.4% in the referendum. The vote isn’t legally binding ...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/29/berlin-vot…
# Legal significance International, Public and community housing, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Apartment building residents considering banning unvaccinated residents
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)Apartment residents across Australia are considering banning unvaccinated residents from their facilities. Strata committees are debating restricting access to gyms, pools, spas, saunas, barbecue areas, recreation rooms and gardens to the double-vaccinated only, in a highly contentious move that could pit neighbour against neighbour. A number are now even drafting bylaws in order to limit those who can use their common property amenities, despite unvaccinated owners also paying towards their upkeep, or unvaccinated tenants paying higher rents for the privilege.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/apartment-owners-considering-bann…
# Australia, Strata, Coronavirus COVID-19.Data shows why Berliners just voted to socialise over 240,000 rental properties from private real estate firms in a referendum.
(No paywall)Berliners have just voted to socialise 240,000 properties owned by private firms in the ‘Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen’ Referendum. This is the latest attempt to combat rising rental prices. The signs that people were struggling with accommodation costs became newsworthy when a price cap was recently deemed unconstitutional, nevertheless Berliners still felt the need to force the government to intervene. Homeday.de, the next generation real estate agent, has recently published a study that shows the affordability of rental properties in Berlin and gives insight into why Berliners voted for this groundbreaking mandate. (Homeday)
https://sweetspotpr.com/wp-content/uploads/Homeday/GHPI/BerlinRe…
# Legal significance, Research alert International, Public and community housing, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Berliners vote 'yes' on property expropriation, but what happens now?
(No paywall)A referendum proposing that authorities in Berlin seize and take into public ownership more than 200,000 homes has passed resoundingly. But political and legal hurdles mean it may never become reality. Regardless of the strength of the vote, the referendum is not legally binding and the proposal will only become law if the ruling parties in the Berlin Senate choose to make it so. That casts the spotlight on the next Berlin government. Sunday's Berlin election results mean the left-leaning coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the Left party is likely to continue in power. However, the referendum vote will feature very prominently in coalition negotiations and the parties are sharply divided on the proposal. The far-left Left party strongly supports it while the Greens have given mixed signals. The SPD, which is likely to remain the biggest party in Berlin after the election, is opposed, as are all major opposition parties.(DW.COM)
https://www.dw.com/en/berliners-vote-yes-on-property-expropriati…
# Legal significance International, Public and community housing, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.