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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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.

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Archive

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Key topics

Planning executives shaping NSW's new housing strategy battle to keep their jobs

Amy Greenbank
ABC (No paywall)

Dozens of planning executives, including those instrumental in developing the Minns government's signature housing reforms, might soon be out of a job. The Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure is on the cusp of losing key staff with decades of experience to deliver on a Labor election promise. Senior planning staff are right now battling it out with their peers to see who will remain in their role. Critics say it's the wrong time to embark on mass job cuts, but others see it as a chance to weed out underperforming executives on fat salaries and remove any duplicate roles. Ahead of the 2023 state election, Premier Chris Minns pledged to shake up the public service by guillotining 15 per cent of senior executives and imposing a two year pay freeze on those remaining.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-08/nsw-minns-government-hous…

# Legal significance NSW, Rent.
 

Rental affordability plunges to worst level on record

Melissa Iaria
realestate.com.au (No paywall)

Rental affordability in Australia has reached its worst level in at least 17 years, with NSW renters hit hardest, a new report reveals. Low and middle-income households are worst affected by the crisis, which is driven by soaring rents since the pandemic started, and a failure of wages to keep pace according to PropTrack's new Rental Affordability Report. The typical, or median-income household earning $111,000 a year, can now afford to rent the smallest share of properties since records began in 2008. Across the country, just 39% of rentals advertised on realestate.com.au over July to December 2023 were affordable for a typical-income household spending 25% of their income on rent.

https://www.realestate.com.au/news/rental-affordability-plunges-…

# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent.
 

Sydney at risk of becoming grandchild-less city if housing crisis is not soothed, report finds

Yashee Sharma
9 News (No paywall)

Sydney could become known as a grandchild-less city if the housing crisis is not addressed now, a new report has found. The NSW Productivity Commission has today sounded the warning in its housing paper, which revealed the city is losing 7000 people aged 30 to 40 from its population a year Sydney also lost twice as many people as it gained between 2016 and 2021 when 35,000 arrived but 70,000 left. The city is consistently losing population to other states and regional NSW, including working-aged residents between 25 and 64. The report found housing supply has not kept up with demand and is forcing Sydneysiders to pack up and move elsewhere in the search for affordable housing.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/sydney-losing-population-new-r…

# Hot topic NSW, .
 

Rent bidding continues to force potential tenants out of future homes despite crackdown in NSW

Yashee Sharma
9 News (No paywall)

Desperate renters have missed out on tenancies as agents have allegedly continued to invite bidding, despite a crackdown. The NSW government last year banned agents from encouraging prospective tenants to place higher offers on rental properties in response to the state's dire housing crisis. Authorities then closed loopholes to prevent landlords and third parties from also soliciting deals in June this year but the practice is believed to be still alive. Prospective tenants have felt "significant pressure" to place higher bids, according to the Tenants Union NSW.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/rent-bidding-alive-in-nsw-desp…

# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent.
 

The ‘irresponsible’ Glebe squatters who started a women’s movement

Mary Ward
The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)

On March 8, 1974, women’s liberationists took to the streets of Glebe, climbing onto rooftops in an International Women’s Day protest. The next week, some of the group broke into one of the inner-Sydney suburb’s many rundown vacant terraces. They changed the locks and painted two words across the front: women’s refuge. But while the idea of a women’s refuge was radical in itself – the Family Law Actwas more than a year away – the group of women leading the charge to establish one, including author Dr Anne Summers, North Sydney mayor Carole Baker and the late economist Margaret Power, had spent months seeking premises through much less radical means.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-irresponsible-glebe-squa…

# Must read NSW, Security and safety.
 

Worst suburbs to be a renter: rent rises in each NSW suburb revealed

Aidan Devine and Taylor Troeth
Daily Telegraph (No paywall)

Tenants in parts of Sydney are shelling out $20 more per day than they were at this time last year – just for a roof over their heads. PropTrack data revealed an explosive change in the rental crisis, with rents ballooning in rapid time due to soaring population growth and a further deterioration in vacancies. The figures showed median rents climbed by more than $150 per week in close to 100 city suburbs over the past year. A further 280 of Sydney’s circa 700 suburbs recorded average rises of $80-$150 per week. A $150 per week rise or more effectively meant tenants paying the new rent needed to channel at least $20 more each day into their housing cost than a year ago – or at least $7800 more a year.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/property/worst-suburbs-to-be-a…

# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent.
 

‘Rosehill will become a ghetto’: Councillor accused of ‘cultural snobbery’ over racecourse remarks

Anthony Segaert
The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)

A plan to convert Rosehill Racecourse into housing would transform the area into a ghetto of 100,000 people, a local councillor has claimed in comments condemned as “malicious”, “cultural snobbery” and showing a “breathtaking lack of understanding”. In a chaotic meeting that featured councillor-drawn maps and frequent yelling, Parramatta Council on Monday night voted against a motion to reject the housing plan and heritage list the racetrack, on the same day the Australian Turf Club’s immediate past president said the proposal had little chance of succeeding.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/rosehill-will-become-a-ghett…

# Hot topic NSW, .
 

Auckland landlord slapped with a restraining order and damages of $65,000

Jonathan Killick
9 News (No paywall)

The Tenancy Tribunal has ordered a west Auckland landlord to pay a total of $NZ69,563 ($AU65,125.95) for "widespread and egregious" breaches. Shirley Anne Sharp ran a lodge at 107 Blockhouse Bay that consisted of a converted family home and several unconsented cabins. The tribunal found it wasn't "fit for humans". The tribunal heard that an outdoor toilet didn't have a door. A tenant had put up a curtain for privacy, but it "was not effective if windy". Adjudicator Rex Woodhouse called that "humiliating".

https://www.nine.com.au/property/news/auckland-landlord-slapped-…

# Hot topic International, Security and safety.
 

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