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
Renters' Guide to COVID-19
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)The NSW Government has introduced a new 60-day eviction ban for some tenants. The 'July 2021 Moratorium' commenced on the 14th July 2021 and will end on the 11th September 2021. During this time landlords will be prevented from serving a notice of termination or making an application to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) for rent arrears if the tenant is an 'impacted tenant', they have provided notice to the landlord they are an impacted tenant and they continue to pay at least 25% of the weekly rent. The Government also announced that it will provide financial incentive to landlords who provide tenants with a rent reduction during this July 2021 Moratorium. ... Check out The Renters' Guide to COVID-19 which has been developed to provide legal information about situations that may arise as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Privacy and access, Rent.Why a killer US heatwave points to a stifling future for our cities
Nick O'Malley and Miki Perkins The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It was the hellish evening temperatures that finally caused the authorities to start busing the homeless into heat shelters where they had access to fans, air-conditioning and water. Three hours from sundown last Saturday the temperature in Las Vegas peaked at 47.2 degrees ... Dr Sebastian Pfautsch, a specialist on urban heat at Western Sydney University, says though Australian attention has drifted from the terrible summer of 2019 and 2020, he fears for the future of residents of some suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne. The heat is coming, he says, and we are not prepared for it. ... Until better computer models are created all we can know is that as the climate heats due to global warming such heatwaves will in some areas increase in intensity and duration. Areas particularly prone to the phenomenon include northern Europe, North America and south-eastern Australia ... It is not just that large houses on small blocks leave no room for trees, Pfautsch says. The little space left between them provides no room for recreation and serve to increase heat, with side-passages often home to air-conditioning systems that spew heated air across dividing fences. But Pfautsch sees other wilful mistakes. Unshaded black roads absorb heat during the day only to radiate it at night, extending the heat of day into the evening. This contributes to the urban heat island effect. Roofs, exterior walls and even driveways created by developers in currently fashionable dark shades serve to exacerbate the impact, he says. But, according to Pfautsch, the problems begin even before the new suburbs are laid out, when developers clear new sites of all existing trees, ponds and watercourses to maximise space and save on construction costs.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/why-a-killer-u…
# NSW, Climate change, Housing market, Planning and development, State Government.Landlords Are Going to Take Away All Your Wage Gains
Hamilton Nolan (No paywall)From the United States ... Economic crises can happen fast. So can the printing of government stimulus checks to counteract those crises. But building large quantities of housing — to say nothing of affordable housing — is a slow process, beset on all sides by angry neighbors, predatory developers and a general lack of political will. And so Americans emerging from a devastating pandemic find ourselves facing a wry, ironic sort of recovery. The good news is that wages are going up. The bad news is, you’ll have to give them all back to your landlord. ... Landlords large and small are in a dream situation. The combination of rising wages and housing shortages means they can simply adjust rents upwards forever until they have effectively redirected every last bit of outstanding economic growth into their own pockets. Though mega-billionaires and soulless global corporations have (rightfully) replaced them as the primary moneyed villains of a democratic society, landlords are now poised to make a strong comeback as class war enemies in the public mind. (In These Times)
https://inthesetimes.com/article/landlords-housing-stimulus-rent…
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Buying a house cheaper than renting for a third of the country
Sue Lannin ABC (No paywall)More than one third of Australian properties are cheaper to buy than rent, with loan repayments lower than renting in nearly all regional areas of the Northern Territory. In a new report, CoreLogic found repaying a home loan is now cheaper than paying rent on just over 36 per cent of Australian homes because of record low interest rates.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-15/housing-property-rents-ec…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market.Why we need engineers who study ethics as much as maths
S Travis Waller, Kourosh Kayvani, Lucy Marshall and Robert F Care The Conversation (No paywall)The recent apartment building collapse in Miami, Florida, is a tragic reminder of the huge impacts engineering can have on our lives. Disasters such as this force engineers to reflect on their practice and perhaps fundamentally change their approach. Specifically, we should give much greater weight to ethics when training engineers.
https://theconversation.com/why-we-need-engineers-who-study-ethi…
# Australia, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.The climate crisis will create two classes: those who can flee, and those who cannot
Peter Gleick The Guardian (No paywall)Nearly 700 million people worldwide live in low coastal zones vulnerable to sea-level rise and coastal storms. That number could reach a billion by 2050
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/07/global-hea…
# International, Climate change.Scottish government allocates £3.2bn in affordable housing grant to local authorities
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)Councils in Scotland have been allocated a share of more than £3.2bn in grant funding to spend on affordable housing supply over the next five years. ... The funding is allocated to councils via the government’s Affordable Housing Supply Programme and can be used by councils to plan and deliver affordable homes, including in partnership with registered social landlords. ... The funding comes as the newly re-elected Scottish government aims to fulfil its promise of delivering 100,000 affordable homes over the next decade ... with at least 70% of these for social rent.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/scottish-government-allocat…
# International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Local Government.General Synod digest: more action taken to solve UK housing crisis
Pat Ashwoth (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The General Synod took steps to further the Church’s commitment to building decent, affordable housing by commending the report of the Archbishops’ Commission on Housing, Church and Community, as presented to it last year. ... [This sees] applying the assets we have to meet the housing needs of the marginalised and vulnerable.”... “Mission is finding out what God is doing, and joining in,” the Gloucester diocesan secretary said. "The Church had an opportunity to leave a tangible legacy, a positive statement on how to build sustainable housing.” (Church Times)
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/16-july/news/uk/gene…
# International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing.