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
Renting a unit in Sydney or Melbourne? Why it’s time to ask for a rent cut
Richard Whitten (No paywall)With average unit rents falling sharply in Sydney and Melbourne, tenants have more bargaining power now. The median rental prices for apartments in Sydney and Melbourne have fallen over the last few months. Unit rents in Sydney are now at 2013 levels. In Melbourne, unit rents haven't been this low since 2016. This puts apartment renters in Australia's two biggest cities in a position to find lower rent properties or even renegotiate their current leases. (finder.com.au)
https://www.finder.com.au/renting-unit-sydney-melbourne-rent-cut
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Housing market.Rent debt hangs over San Francisco tenants
Juan Carlos Lara (No paywall)From the United States ... Victor Gomez lives in a $2,000-a-month studio apartment with his partner, their two kids, and his partner’s brother. ... Gomez now owes his landlord more than $10,000 but, without reliable work, he has no idea how much his tab will grow, or how long it will take him to pay it back. ... Thousands of residents are currently in a position similar to Gomez. ... “A shitstorm is the only word I can think of to describe it”. Read the full article. (Mission Local)
https://missionlocal.org/2021/01/rent-debt-hangs-over-san-franci…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Coronavirus COVID-19.How to Build Affordable Social Housing to Passive House Standard
Lloyd Alter (No paywall)A story from Canada ... Designing to the Passive House standard of energy efficiency and airtightness is hard. Designing social housing on a tight budget to the Passive House standard is incredibly hard. That's why the work of Emma Cubitt and Invizij Architects is so interesting and important. ... in a gritty part of Hamilton, Ontario, they have built McQuesten Lofts with 50 one-bedroom residential units, developed for housing charity Indwell "in conjunction with local Indigenous organizations to address issues of Indigenous homelessness." (Treehugger)
https://www.treehugger.com/affordable-social-housing-passive-hou…
# International, Public and community housing, Utilities water energy internet, Affordable housing, Homelessness.Philosophy Espresso: The ethics of landlords
Damon Young ABC (No paywall)Philosopher Damon Young presents a second season of short reflections on everyday life, examining a range of everyday issue like why we get upset when children swear, whether diets foolish and what it means to truly love your neighbours. This episode ponders the ethical obligations of landlords to their tenants.
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/philos…
# Audio Australia, Human rights, Landlords and agents.To return to the office or not? How your choice could change the shape of our cities
Alison Cheung (Paywall)Australian cities are at a critical juncture, with changing demands and expectations from workers and inner-city residents in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis set to dictate what our urban landscapes look like for generations to come, planning experts say. (commercialrealestate.com.au)
https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/news/to-return-to-the-of…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Planning and development.The People the Suburbs Were Built for Are Gone
Shayla Love (No paywall)From the United States ... But the suburbs, in the sense of the idyllic American pastoral Trump and Carson referenced, have been changing for some time—not necessarily the physical homes, stores, roads, and offices that populate them, but the people who live there, along with their needs and desires. Read on ... (Vice)
https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3gx5b/the-people-the-suburbs-we…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.There is a vaccine against homelessness: It's called affordable social housing
Juha Kaakinen (No paywall)When the current COVID-19 epidemic really hit the world and was recognized as a pandemic, most countries sooner or later launched a simple advice or order of prevention: Stay at home. A simple and effective measure of precaution for those lucky ones who have a home, but not for the people experiencing homelessness. (OECD Forum Network)
https://www.oecd-forum.org/posts/there-is-a-vaccine-against-home…
# International, Public and community housing, Homelessness, Housing market.Labour government: Prioritising the interests of middle-class landlords over struggling working class tenants
John Minto (No paywall)From New Zealand ... Yesterday’s government announcement on new state housing is a pathetic response to the biggest housing crisis in New Zealand since the 1940s. At a time when the country needs an industrial-scale state house building programme, the government building just 1,600 new state houses per year – the same number built by National in its last term. ... The last time we had a housing crisis this big – in the late 1940s – a Labour government built 10,000 state houses per year. 75 years later Labour can only manage 1,600 per year. Pitiful. (The Daily Blog)
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/01/22/labour-government-prioriti…
# New policy announcement International, Public and community housing.