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
Migrants trying to get into Hobart's housing market face extra tax hurdle that pushes many homes out of reach
Sarah Jane Bell ABC (No paywall)Buying a house in Hobart is hard. For Habib ur Rehman, it's even worse. The new migrant has a more than $40,000 tax handicap preventing him from buying a home in the state because of a surcharge the state government introduced for foreigners. "I have considered Australia like my home but … I felt like I am not a first-class citizen here," Mr Rehman said. An engineer by trade, Mr Rehman received a state-sponsored skilled migrant visa almost two and a half years ago.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-15/hobart-housing-market-mig…
# Australia, Home ownership, State Government, Tax.New options for village retirement living
Rachel Lane The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Retirement and aged care community provider Aveo has introduced a new payment structure for moving into a retirement village. New residents moving into one of their independent living villages will now have three ways to pay for their new home – called Now, Later and Bond.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/new-options-fo…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people.Calls for crackdown on dodgy builders in Tasmania, with homeowners speaking out about traumatic experiences
Annah Fromberg ABC (No paywall)Adriane and Gillian Creamer began a $400,000 renovation and extension of their Cygnet home, south of Hobart, in November 2019. Nearly two years on it's still not finished and they've spent an extra $150,000 fixing defects and $50,000 on legal fees. The couple, who are approaching retirement, describe it as the most traumatic experience of their life. ... When he questioned the builder about the issues, the couple said the relationship became so strained, they sought legal advice and an assessment from a second building surveyor. ... The relevant regulator in Tasmania, the Consumer, Building and Occupation Services (CBOS), insists there are sufficient consumer protections to force builders to fix defects, without resorting to legal action.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-16/calls-for-crackdown-on-do…
# Australia, Housing market, State Government.The high risks faced by international student renters in Australia.
Paul van Reyk Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)International students in Australia make a huge contribution to the economy and the community. They also face serious struggles and hardships. Finding and keeping rental accommodation is one of the major hidden risks they face. COVID-19 has made it even riskier. Professor Alan Morris and colleagues have recently published a significant piece of research here. In this interview, Paul van Reyk, Senior Project Officer with the Tenant’s Union, talks with Alan about the findings and implications of the research.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/high-risks-faced-international-s…
# Australia, Rent, International, Students.Why $46 Billion Couldn’t Prevent an Eviction Crisis
Glenn Thrush and Conor Dougherty The New York Times (Paywall)As national eviction protections lapse, much of the rental assistance sits unspent. Aid was slowed by red tape, resistance from landlords and the difficulty of navigating an informal market. Does a lease on a napkin qualify? ... The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the national moratorium on evictions last month has turned a vexing administrative problem into a human crisis, placing at least 2 million renters in immediate danger of eviction, according to one estimate. ... Federal and local officials, housing experts, landlords and tenants cited an array of problems that slowed the flow of aid: bureaucratic missteps at all levels of government, onerous applications, resistance from landlords, the reluctance of local officials to ease eligibility requirements for the poor, difficulty raising awareness that rental aid even existed, and a steep rise in rents that increased the incentive for kicking out low-income tenants. More than anything, the failure illustrates the difficulty of trying to build a vast new social program from scratch in under a year, and the inability of policymakers to fully anticipate the challenges of navigating a rental market dominated by mom-and-pop operators outside the more regulated world of owner-occupied housing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/business/evictions-rental-ass…
# Must read International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, State Government.‘Smells like rent control’: Housing affordability inquiry chair rubbishes affordable housing
Angus Thompson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A Sydney Liberal MP leading the Commonwealth’s inquiry into housing affordability has equated social housing with “housing commission” and criticised affordable schemes as rent fixing that drive up prices and limit supply elsewhere. ... “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,” Mr Falinski told the Urban Development Institute of Australia webcast on Thursday afternoon. “Affordable housing in different guises can do different things, but ultimately, it has the problem of reducing supply while increasing costs, and in some cases, looks and smells like rent control, which ... actually means that people pay higher rents.” Check out Alan Morris's 'Letter to the Editor' on 11 September 2021under the heading 'Floored by housing view': 'The comments on social housing by Jason Falinski capture the malevolence and short-sightedness of the federal government. His comment that social housing, which he deliberately labelled pejoratively as “housing commission”, “has had a lot of negative impact on vulnerable communities and I query whether building it actually helps people in challenged communities”, ignores the voluminous research that has clearly illustrated the profoundly positive impact that accessing affordable, secure and adequate housing can have on people who are homeless or who are dependent on the private rental sector and having to use most of their income to pay the rent.' [Viewed at: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/curbs-on-freedom-will-create-an-underclass-20210909-p58q9o.html] Also, check the media release from Homelessness Australia, Community Housing Industry Association and National Shelter at: [https://www.communityhousing.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/253Y1007.pdf?x53590].
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/smells-like-rent-control-hou…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government.State warned of ‘huge risk’ to vulnerable people
Lucy Cormack The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)NSW risks setting a national reopening precedent that leaves vulnerable people behind, with social services groups warning the double vaccination target of 70 per cent could mask inequity in low-income communities. Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) said it has been unable to access an income bracket breakdown highlighting vaccination rates of the poorest groups, despite multiple requests to the state government and national cabinet. The claim comes as COVID-19 case numbers rise in inner Sydney suburbs like Glebe, Camperdown, Redfern and Waterloo, including among vulnerable groups and in public housing.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/state-warned-of-huge-risk-to…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health.What’s the state of purpose-built student accommodation? A look at the City of Adelaide.
Andrew Rossiter (No paywall)Purpose-built student accommodation is changing the fabric of many of our CBDs. Last month our Local Government Population Forecasting Team reviewed population forecasts for the City of Adelaide and were surprised with just how big an impact the sector is having in the Adelaide CBD. In this blog, Andrew Rossiter shares some of what the team learned on the current state of purpose-built accommodation in Adelaide, including the impact of the pandemic on current occupancy rates and what the road to recovery may look like. (.id blog)
https://blog.id.com.au/2021/population-forecasting/whats-the-sta…
# Australia, Housing market, Students.