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
Good news: Rental increases in NSW have just been capped at one per year
Winnie Stubbs Time Out (No paywall)As part of its mission to solve the housing crisis in NSW, the government has just introduced a rental increase cap, meaning that rent prices can only be increased once per year. That means that from now on, if your rent goes up, it can’t be increased again for another 12 months. Look, we get that once a year is bad enough, but we'll take it. The new rent increase regulations were introduced on October 15, 2024, and apply to fixed-term leases. The cap has been introduced as part of a comprehensive overhaul of rental laws, which are expected to benefit more than 2.2 million renters across the state. Prior to this law, tenants with fixed-term leases of less than two years weren’t protected against multiple rent increases.
https://www.timeout.com/sydney/news/good-news-rental-increases-i…
# Must read NSW, Rent.Greece targets short-term rentals in bid to boost housing
Reuters Daily Telegraph (No paywall)Greece said on Friday (September 13) it would give a three-year tax break to homeowners who convert their short-term rentals to long ones, becoming the latest European country to clamp down on holiday lets to tackle a housing shortage. Zachary Goelman produced this report.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/greece-targets-s…
# Hot topic, Video International, Rent.Teaching tenants how to tackle the power imbalance with landlords
Sarina Gibbon The Post (No paywall)We have a complicated relationship with education in New Zealand. We celebrate ingenuity but denigrate anyone who seems to know too much. Why else are poppies tall if not to cast shadows over the rest of the field? This attitude does the rental sector a huge disservice. The real victim? Tenants. Here’s the thing: The inherent power imbalance isn’t just between those who own and those who rent; it’s between those who know and those who don’t. When tenants don’t know their rights, they lose — Every. Single. Time.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/350413583/teaching-tenants-how…
# International, Rent.Australian Housing Crisis Is a Human Rights Disaster, Expert Says
Bloomberg (No paywall)Australia is in the grips of a housing crisis, as home prices continue to climb with demand still outstripping supply. Kevin Bell, Adjunct Professor at Monash University and author of "Housing: The Great Australian Right," says the the government needs to rethink its policies because the crisis has turned into a human rights disaster. Bell also says the "housing anxiety" has turned the "Great Australian Dream" into the "Great Australian Nightmare".
# Must read, Video International, .How Australia's housing market compares to the rest of the world
Daniel Jeffrey 9 News (No paywall)Australia lags behind much of the world when it comes to home ownership, and households are taking on far more debt to buy a house than in other similar nations. Less than two-thirds of Australians (63 per cent) own their home outright or with a mortgage, according to a new report from AMP. That's slightly less than in a raft of comparable nations, including the United States (66 per cent), the United Kingdom (67 per cent) and New Zealand (65 per cent), and well behind some European countries such as Lithuania (92 per cent), Spain (75 per cent) and Italy (72 per cent).
https://www.9news.com.au/finance/australia-housing-market-compar…
# Hot topic International, .Allotment rent increases lowered after backlash
Alex Seabrook BBC (No paywall)A city's allotment rents will increase next year but by less than was previously planned. Bristol City Council wanted to more than double the charge for a plot, to help pay for a growing backlog of repairs. But tenants opposed the plans, claiming there was "no logic to the increases". Charges will now go up from £50 to either £66 without water or £76 with water. Chair of the public health committee Stephen Williams said: "We’ve tried to make the process as open as possible and to listen to all the viewpoints."
# Hot topic International, Rent, Repairs.Cafe owners stage sit-in after rent dispute
Joe McFadden BBC (No paywall)The owners of a cafe have staged a sit-in protest over being evicted from their rented premises. Adam Porrino and Tess Parkinson, owners of Café Blah, in Withington, south Manchester, claimed they had not been given a fair notice period. The pair alleged the property's landlords, letting agents H Homes, had "unfairly snatched away" their business and changed the locks during an ongoing lease renewal dispute. H Homes has been approached for comment.
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent.Squatters take London’s housing crisis into their own hands
Reuters Daily Telegraph (No paywall)In the shopping streets and housing estates of the south London town of Croydon, some once-derelict buildings are slowly coming back to life, as a group of squatters take over disused commercial premises to provide beds for the homeless. The Reclaim Croydon collective says it is providing a community-based solution to a broken housing market. Lauren Anthony reports.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/squatters-take-l…
# Hot topic International, .