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
All residents living in unsafe government-owned Batemans Bay motel ‘assisted’ to find alternative housing
Oliver Jacques About Regional (No paywall)Twenty low-income residents who were living in an unsafe NSW Government-owned Batemans Bay motel hit by fire and vandals have been “assisted” to find alternative accommodation, says Transport for NSW. The longstanding Bay Waters motel premises was bought by the NSW Government for $4 million in 2018 to be run as an ongoing motel business as part of the Batemans Bay bridge works. The property was acquired to facilitate roadworks while a private operator continued to run the accommodation service. The chronic rental shortage in Batemans Bay meant that some 20 residents were living in the building permanently.
https://aboutregional.com.au/all-residents-living-in-unsafe-gove…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media NSW, .Sydney family pays $1000 per week for cockroach-infested unit
Orana Durney-Benson Domain (No paywall)A man states his two-year-old daughter is facing health issues due to rampant mould and cockroaches in their rental apartment. The renter alleges that the landlord has demonstrated “a lack of urgency” in resolving the problems. “There is a cockroach infestation in the basement of the building, and anytime we open the windows, large adult cockroaches enter our apartment (along with huntsman spiders which like to eat them),” an anonymous Sydney renter wrote on Reddit. Due to the cockroach infestation, the renter states he has been unable to open the windows to ventilate the house. There are currently no fly screens in place. He states that the inability to ventilate the house has worsened a mould problem in the unit. “The mould has been getting worse despite running our air conditioning almost constantly to reduce the speed at which the mould is spreading.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-family-pays-1000-per-week-…
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, .Sydney renter evicted over unmown lawn
Orana Durney-Benson Domain (No paywall)A Sydney renter has been served an eviction notice just days before Christmas, and now fears their family will be left homeless. “I have been in a rental in Sydney for only about 8 weeks and have just been given notice for breach of tenancy, eviction,” they explain on Reddit. The notice states they must be out January 6, they say. According to the anonymous renter, the reason given for the eviction was pets being kept on the premises and an overgrown lawn. “[The lawn] was like that when we moved in and is noted as such on the condition report,” they write.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-renter-evicted-over-unmown…
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Rent.Sydney renter evicted over unmown lawn
Orana Durney-Benson Domain (No paywall)A Sydney renter has been served an eviction notice just days before Christmas, and now fears their family will be left homeless. “I have been in a rental in Sydney for only about 8 weeks and have just been given notice for breach of tenancy, eviction,” they explain on Reddit. The notice states they must be out January 6, they say. According to the anonymous renter, the reason given for the eviction was pets being kept on the premises and an overgrown lawn. “[The lawn] was like that when we moved in and is noted as such on the condition report,” they write.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-renter-evicted-over-unmown…
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Rent.The renters caught in Byron Bay region’s housing crisis: ‘I feel like there’s a fire under my arse’
Royce Kurmelovs The Guardian (No paywall)Bessminda Groves is moving soon. Ever since she learned six months ago that she was likely to have to leave her current place, she has spent every day searching for somewhere new to live in Byron shire’s competitive rental market. “This is just part of what you have to do,” Groves says. “I know how long it takes to get into another space. When having to look, I really feel like there’s a fire under my arse.” According to the 2024 rental affordability index produced by National Shelter and SGS Economics and Planning, Byron Bay is one of the least affordable places to rent in the country, and surrounding towns across the shire on the New South Wales north coast are not much better.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/21/byron-bay…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.NSW government agrees to help save Paddington boarding house if developer will sell
Holly Tregenza ABC (No paywall)The NSW Government has agreed to help foot part of the bill to purchase a boarding house in inner Sydney which is home to 28 vulnerable residents. The offer is dependent on the owner agreeing to sell the property they have plans to redevelop. The two blocks on Selwyn Street in Paddington have been the subject of an ongoing battle after LFD Developments purchased the property, which has been a boarding house for men on a low income since the end of WWII. The developer submitted plans to the City of Sydney to turn the boarding houses into four luxury apartments and the matter is now before the NSW Land and Environment Court.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-23/nsw-paddington-boarding-h…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Rent.The plan to solve Sydney’s housing crisis that had only one application
Michael McGowan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)One of NSW Labor’s signature reforms to boost housing density around train stations netted only a single development application for an extra 16 apartments in 2024, prompting questions over whether the policy would help ease Sydney’s supply crunch. The so-called “tier two” transport oriented development zones, which allow for greater housing density near 37 heavy rail and metro stations, form a key pillar of Chris Minns’ push to ease the housing supply shortage. Despite 18 of the zones being in place since April in parts of Bayside, Cumberland and Ku-ring-gai in Sydney, as well as in Newcastle, Wollongong and Lake Macquarie, property developers are yet to buy in.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/the-plan-to-solve-sydney-s-h…
# Must read NSW, .We are still paying cost of Howard’s housing failure
The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)The 2004 cabinet papers are smoking-gun evidence of Howard and Costello’s wilful and damaging dithering on housing policy (“Why Howard vetoed plan to fix soaring house prices”, January 1). They knew their tax policies were crushing housing affordability and yet with trademark arrogance, they did nothing. A whole generation of younger Australians have already paid a high price for their inaction, and it could take another 20 years to fix the problems Howard and Costello failed to address. Beyond housing, the 2004 cabinet papers are a litany of poor decisions and inaction, which have created decades-long problems for this country and our neighbours.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/we-are-still-paying-cost-of-…
# Hot topic NSW, .