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
To move or not to move: is it cheaper to find a new place or stay when your rent increases by 10%?
Sara Quach & Park Thaichon The Conversation (No paywall)Your landlord has just raised your rent by 10% and your mind starts running the numbers – should you cop it sweet or look to move? It’s a familiar scenario in today’s unpredictable housing market. Understanding the real costs of staying versus moving is essential for making informed choices: renters must consider hidden expenses such as moving costs, deposits and changing rental rates, giving them tools to handle rising rent pressures more effectively. National median market rents have hit record highs, reaching $627 per week, with an average annual growth rate of 9.1% during the past three years, according to real estate giant CoreLogic.
https://theconversation.com/to-move-or-not-to-move-is-it-cheaper…
# Hot topic Australia, Starting a tenancy.Where even a modest home costs 99 per cent of incomes
Jim Malo The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Rental affordability is the worst on record in several capital cities, pushing welfare recipients, minimum-wage workers and single-income households to the fringes of Australian communities. The National Shelter-SGS Planning and Economics Rental Affordability Index released on Friday shows it is unaffordable for the average household to rent in every city aside from the ACT, the one jurisdiction in Australia where a rent cap has been implemented. Affordability was much worse for low-income households; in some cases the poorest of the poor would need to spend more than their entire income to rent in the most expensive cities.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/where-even-a-modest-home-co…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media Australia, .The NSW housing minister stuffed up on radio. Then her inbox overflowed with hate
Alexandra Smith The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson is no shrinking violet. She has been a NSW Labor operative in the blokey world of Sussex Street, a union official and a political activist since her high school days. But a clumsily worded radio interview on ABC Sydney, in which she seemed to suggest that the rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Sydney was a “couple of hundred bucks”, has delivered Jackson what she says is the worst wave of abuse she has encountered in her political career. Jackson acknowledged on Thursday that her Tuesday radio interview with Hamish Macdonald was “not my best work”.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/the-nsw-housing-minister-stu…
# Hot topic NSW, .Victorian affordable housing tenants say issues with overflowing rubbish, broken door met with slow response
Jesse Thompson ABC (No paywall)Tenants in an affordable housing building in Melbourne say they've faced security issues and knee-deep piles of uncollected rubbish since they moved into their government-owned apartment block about 18 months ago. Their experiences with Victoria's affordable rental program — marketed as a unique alternative to the strained rental market — have left some wondering if they would have been better off in private rentals. The building in inner Melbourne was among the first to house people under the scheme, which generally offers three-year leases in government-owned properties for at least 10 per cent below the market rate.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-16/vic-affordable-housing-re…
# Hot topic Australia, Privacy and access, Rent, Security and safety.’m a career woman with 25 years’ experience, yet found myself homeless
Miriam Wallace The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A few months ago, I read that middle-aged single women were among the fastest-growing demographics facing homelessness. I even joked to a friend, “I’m going to become a statistic!” But it turned out to be no joke. It was a Friday in September when I was supposed to collect the keys to a small rental in Balaclava. I’d been approved, scraped together the bond and first month’s rent with the help of a loan, and was finally ready to settle back into my neighbourhood after months of instability. After signing the lease and transferring the bond and rent to the real estate account, I emailed the agent to confirm the time I could pick up the keys. The response left me staring at my screen in shock: they had given the home to another tenant, claiming I hadn’t sent the funds in time.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-m-a-career-woman-with-25-years…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Starting a tenancy.The suburb where I grew up was dubbed ‘the ghetto’. I didn’t tell friends where I lived
Shona Hendley The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)“Home sweet home.” Growing up, as I watched Dorothy navigate the hazards of the yellow brick road and the land of Oz in her desperate quest to get back to Kansas, these positive sentiments – of our homes carefully holding our hearts – seemed at odds, at least for some of the time, with my reality. “A childhood home is often assumed to be, and should be, a place of safety, security, and nurturing,” says clinical psychologist and author Dr Rebecca Ray. “It ideally provides a stable environment where children can grow, learn and develop and have their emotional, psychological and physical needs met. It’s a space where they should feel loved, supported and free to be themselves.”
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/the-subu…
# Australia, Rent.Beauty Point caravan park residents say restrictive rules and recent evictions causing anxiety
Ashleigh Barraclough ABC (No paywall)Residents at a caravan park in northern Tasmania say restrictive rules, recent evictions and rent increases at the park are causing them constant anxiety and nightmares. The Beauty Point Tourist Park made headlines this year when it was investigated by the local council for potential non-compliance and for issuing eviction notices to three residents who allegedly brought the park's reputation "into disrepute". Anne is one of about 60 residents — who the park calls "guests". She owns her own cabin but pays fortnightly site fees to management.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-18/beauty-point-caravan-park…
# Hot topic Australia, Land lease communities.Discounted housing? Understanding shared rental markets under platformisation
Nicole Gurran, Zahra Nasreen & Pranita Shrestha Taylor & Francis (No paywall)Low-income earners and others facing housing market barriers have long sought to save costs by sharing. Potentially a release valve in constrained markets, the share sector is poorly understood due to the difficulty of tracing informal negotiations between cohabiting households. However, the rise of online accommodation platforms opens new opportunities to view these hidden arrangements while also propelling new practices under the broader financialisation of housing and ‘platformisation’ of daily life. With reference to Sydney, Australia, one of the world’s most expensive housing markets, we use platform data to investigate the contemporary share housing sector, using listings placed by people both seeking and offering shared accommodation via Flatmates.com.au.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02673037.2023.22427…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Rent, Share houses, Starting a tenancy.