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
‘The council tenants weren’t going to be allowed back’: how Britain’s ‘ugliest building’ was gentrified
Oliver Wainwright The Guardian (No paywall)The east London brutalist landmark Balfron Tower was conceived as the perfect neighbourhood in the sky by its Marxist architect. Now its flats are being sold as ‘trophy properties’.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jul/26/balfron-tow…
# International, Public and community housing, Estate renewal, Housing market.Gisborne family break into empty Kāinga Ora home amid housing shortage
Matthew Rosenberg (No paywall)Desperation forced a young Tairāwhiti family to break down the door of an empty Kāinga Ora home and take up residence this month, even though utilities were disconnected. The stay was short-lived, however, after the Crown agency informed the new occupants the house was being tested for methamphetamine contamination. The couple and their two children have been given a temporary home through Kāinga Ora but a housing advocate says the issue highlights a broken system where people are forced into extreme measures to find suitable places to live. Kāinga Ora acknowledges there are not enough homes in Tairāwhiti and says it won't be pressing charges against the family. (New Zealand Herald)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/gisborne-family-break-into-empty-k…
# International, Public and community housing, Homelessness.Increasing density might be the answer to housing costs, research shows
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)The broad scale relaxation of planning rules leads to a significant increase in housing supply, new research into New Zealand planning changes has found. A similar approach could help property prices and rents in Australia fall by as much as 12.5 per cent, making housing more affordable, economists said. ... Centre for Independent Studies chief economist Peter Tulip said the research showed that if you allowed for more building, you got more building as well as a reduction property prices. “A substantial relaxation of planning restrictions would enable more construction and hence less expensive housing,” Tulip said.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/how-to-make-housing-cheaper…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, International, Planning and development.Developers banned from locking apartment residents into energy deals
Nick Toscano The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Victorian apartment developers will be banned from striking private deals with electricity retailers that lock residents into contracts covering entire buildings, under changes the Andrews government says will empower consumers to seek better offers as energy prices rise. Also, you can read this report in the Premier's media release at: [https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/ban-delivers-cheaper-energy-and-more-choice]
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/developers-banned-fr…
# Australia, Strata, Utilities water energy internet, Landlords and agents.China's mortgage boycott is escalating. Now Evergrande suppliers have stopped paying bank loans
Samuel Yang ABC (No paywall)A fast-growing mortgage boycott across dozens of cities in China has prompted some property suppliers to cease their bank loan repayments, raising fears the escalating situation could trigger a further downward spiral in the sector and even threaten the country's financial stability. Hundreds of landscapers, sculpture-makers and construction companies have expressed their anger that they have been bled dry because some debt-saddled developers did not pay their bills while they continued to service or help build apartments, Chinese media Caixin reported. ... Concerns about developers' inability to finish housing projects have ignited a nationwide strike, with a wave of disgruntled homebuyers across the country refusing to pay their mortgages unless their homes are built. Also, read Stephen Bartholomeusz's article entitled: 'Alarm bells are ringing as China’s property cancer spreads' in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/china-s-property-cancer-is-spreading-20220726-p5b4kw.html]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-27/china-mortgage-boycott-ev…
# International, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Lismore residents with flood-damaged homes still received bills from energy companies
Caitlin Cassidy The Guardian (No paywall)Lismore residents whose flood-damaged homes have been uninhabitable for months received bills for hundreds of dollars from energy providers based on estimated power usage. Lismore resident Ella Buckland only moved back home with her young daughter last week following flooding in February, and still does not have a meter, but in that time Origin Energy has sent her two invoices for estimated electricity charges.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/27/lismore-r…
# NSW, Utilities water energy internet.Almost two thirds of rent increase notices examined by Threshold found to be invalid
Ann Murphy (No paywall)From Ireland ... Almost two thirds of rent increase notices brought to Threshold by tenants in the second quarter of this year were invalid, according to the organisation. (Irish Examiner)
# International, Rent.Perth resident fears homelessness after being told to leave public housing following partner's death
Jacqueline Lynch ABC (No paywall)Just weeks after Gerald Virgo's partner died, he was told he would have to leave the house where she took her last breath. Now he is on the brink of homelessness. Mr Virgo had been with his partner Sindy Marchesani for more than two decades. When her liver started failing, he did not hesitate to become her full-time carer. Mr Virgo said last year he moved into his partner's home of 20 years to try and make her final year as comfortable as possible. "She said to me, she didn't want to go to a hospice and I said, 'No you won't. You'll stay here,'" Mr Virgo told Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth Mornings. Mr Virgo was by Ms Marchesani's side when she died at the home last month. He was taken aback when, weeks later, the WA Department of Communities informed him he would have to leave the public housing property the couple shared in Hamilton Hill because Ms Marchesani had been the "sole tenant" on the lease.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-26/public-housing-leave-deat…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Homelessness.