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
Adelaide house prices soaring as buyers look to move from COVID-hit Sydney and Melbourne
Eric Tlozek ABC (No paywall)Adelaide's house prices are continuing to hit record levels, new figures show, with fewer homes for sale and outside investors helping drive growth.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-01/record-adelaide-house-pri…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Media release: action needed as renters living in “tin shacks” - 75 organisations urge state/territory governments to adopt minimum standards tokeep renters healthy and safe
(No paywall)Seventy-five organisations from across Australia have written to state and territory Cabinet Ministers calling for minimum standards for rental properties to safeguard the health of renters and protect them from the impacts of climate change. The open letter was signed by community, faith, environment, housing, industry, and social sector organisations, including CHOICE, Healthy Futures, People with Disability Australia, Stiebel Eltron, and the United Workers Union. It comes after the IPCC issued its most dire warning about the impacts of climate change on public health. (Healthy Homes for Renters)
https://www.healthyhomes.org.au/news/open-letter-minimum-standar…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Climate change, Federal Government, Health, Housing market, State Government.CDC eviction ban ended by Supreme Court: 4 questions about its impact answered by a housing law expert
Katy Ramsey Mason The Conversation (No paywall)The Supreme Court on Aug. 26, 2021, ended the Biden administration’s ban on evictions, putting millions at risk of losing their homes. The ruling, by a divided court, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its authority in continuing a moratorium on evictions after Congress failed to pass new legislation. We asked legal scholar Katy Ramsey Mason to explain what the ruling means, who will be affected and what happens next.
https://theconversation.com/cdc-eviction-ban-ended-by-supreme-co…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, International, Landlords and agents.Supreme Court Ends Biden’s Eviction Moratorium
Adam Liptak and Glenn Thrush The New York Times (Paywall)The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Biden administration’s latest moratorium on evictions, ending a political and legal dispute during a public health crisis in which the administration’s shifting positions had subjected it to criticism from adversaries and allies alike. The court issued an eight-page majority opinion, an unusual move in a ruling on an application for emergency relief, where terse orders are more common. The court’s three liberal justices dissented. The decision puts hundreds of thousands of tenants at risk of losing shelter, while the administration struggles to speed the flow of billions of dollars in federal funding to people who are behind in rent because of the coronavirus pandemic and its associated economic hardship. Only about $5.1 billion of the $46.5 billion in aid had been disbursed by the end of July, according to figures released on Wednesday, as bureaucratic delays at the state and local levels snarled payouts. The majority opinion, which was unsigned, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had exceeded its authority.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/27/us/eviction-moratorium-ends.h…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.Disabled pensioner losing six-year fight to stay in south-west Sydney home of 21 years
Kamin Gock ABC (No paywall)Aunty Carol Carter has been fighting to stay in her home for six years. But in just a matter of weeks, the 72-year-old pensioner could be kicked out. She says she's not going anywhere. "I'm upset because no-one's listening, they never listen to me," the Kamilaroi elder said. Aunty Carol has lived in public housing in Revesby, in south-west Sydney, for 21 years. ... For the last two decades she has lived with Guillain-Barre syndrome — a rare neurological disorder that's caused her to lose feeling from her "nose to toes" and means she must use a wheelchair to remain mobile. ... Since 2015, she has been fighting to stay in her home — if she were to move, she said, the house must suit her specific health needs. The NSW government wants to relocate her to a new home a few blocks away so they can develop the area and build 18 new public housing dwellings. But Aunty Carol says it's not that simple.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-29/disabled-sydney-pensioner…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Eviction, Public and community housing, Disability, Estate renewal, Older people, State Government.Investor inspections allowed to go ahead in Sydney, with health orders updated to address confusion
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Property investors in NSW can continue to inspect homes during lockdown, it has been confirmed, with changes made to the stay-at-home orders that many believed prohibited them from inspecting properties in person. The state government tweaked the wording of the public health orders late on Wednesday afternoon, in a bid to clear up industry confusion which resulted in some real estate agents preventing investors from inspecting homes in person. The orders now state it is a reasonable excuse to leave home to inspect an investment property, but previously said a person could only leave home to inspect a potential new place of residence for that person. ... Tenants’ Union of NSW chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said he also felt investors’ inspections had been clearly banned under the orders, and was disappointed to learn they could go ahead amid growing COVID-19 case numbers – especially when investors could turn to virtual inspections and professional building and pest inspections instead. “Health orders have been consistent on that since July,” he said. “Investors really don’t need to be inspecting property at the moment. “I can see a public health argument for someone who needs a home to live in, but it’s not consistent to say someone should be entering someone else’s place of residence and potentially spreading the virus in order to buy property. “Every other industry is making adjustments; it’s pretty wild that the property industry is forging ahead.” Mr Patterson Ross said allowing investor inspections would make it all the more important for agents and landlords to follow restrictions, which should be limited to two one-on-one inspections per week for tenanted properties, under rules in the health orders and tenancy agreements. Large numbers of renters had been unlawfully asked to leave properties during inspections, he said, while others had reported multiple people going through their home at one time. Many renters felt too vulnerable to retaliation to report those doing the wrong thing, he added.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/investors-inspections-allowed-to-…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Privacy and access, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Banning Airbnb and shipping in portable homes considered as housing crisis bites in coastal towns
Rachel Clayton ABC (No paywall)Soaring prices. Low wages. Competition. Desperation. The unaffordable conditions for Australian home buyers are spilling into the rental market for coastal families, and locals say it's destroying the very reason these towns are popular in the first place. Landlords from Byron Bay, Yamba and Noosa to Lorne and Apollo Bay are jacking up rents as the popularity of seaside towns continues climbing while lockdowns roll on in cities.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-28/coastal-families-lose-hom…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing market, Regional NSW, Short-term holiday letting.Lyn retired with little super and unable to pay the rent. Her story is not uncommon
Leigh Sales, Kirsten Robb, and Laura Francis ABC (No paywall)Lyn Bailey lived a comfortable life before her divorce, travelling overseas and even putting her four children through private school. She never expected to be staring down the barrel of homelessness. After her divorce was finalised, Lyn thought she would be able to buy herself a unit along the coast of New South Wales with her share of the proceeds from the sale of the family home. The bank told her it would not lend money to someone in their late 50s. "For the first time in my adult life, I had to find somewhere to live to rent," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-30/women-financially-disadva…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Older people, Women.