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
Mascot Towers owners urged to sell as developers express interest in demolishing beleaguered block
Ursula Malone ABC (No paywall)Owners of apartments in the troubled Mascot Towers building have been advised it is no longer financially viable to fix the building and that their best option is to sell up. ... Chair of the Mascot Towers Owners Corporation Gary Deigan told the ABC: "The only solution in our mind is to sell the building off. We have lost a lot of money. We have to decide whether we are going to continue to lose money or try to recover some."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-15/mascot-towers-owners-urge…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.700,000 renters hit with unfair eviction notices during pandemic
Dan Wilson Craw (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... One in 12 private renters has been given notice to move out without a reason since March 2020, a new poll by Survation reveals today. The survey, commissioned by us, indicates that as many as 694,000 private tenants have been served with a Section 21 notice during the pandemic, which allows landlords to evict tenants without needing a reason. (Generation Rent) Read the same story at: [https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/one-in-12-private-renters-served-no-fault-eviction-notice-during-pandemic-survey-finds-70397].
# International, Rent, No-grounds evictions.Bega Valley Shire Council asks home owners to rent vacant holiday properties as NSW faces housing shortage
Keira Proust ABC (No paywall)When family psychologist Terra Harrison decided to take the plunge and move from Newcastle to the sleepy seaside town of Eden on the NSW Far South Coast, she realised some "out of the box" thinking was needed to find a place to live. Ms Harrison had decided to move her family to the region for a "tree change," and to help deliver more mental health support services to regional NSW. But she said it was concerning to see only two viable rental options on the market when trying to move.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-17/bega-valley-council-says-…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market, Regional NSW.Immigrant town
Samuel Yang ABC (No paywall)“Am I going to be OK there in Australia? Am I going to be able to learn the language and make friends and fit into the community?” These are some of the questions Iraqi refugee Zinah al-Haidari was asking herself as her family prepared to move 13,000 kilometres around the world to New South Wales back in 2013. ... But Liverpool is also a suburb of New South Wales situated some 27 kilometres south-west of the Sydney CBD. With more than 120 ethnicities and 140 languages spoken, Liverpool is one of the most multicultural places in Australia — more than half of its residents were born overseas, hailing from places as diverse as Iraq, Vietnam, Fiji, India and Lebanon. [Read on]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-17/liverpool-migrants-why-ne…
# NSW, Families, Housing market, Personal stories, Race and ethnicity.Highly coveted Sydney suburbs record double-digit rent declines: Domain
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Renters are starting to return to inner-city areas a year after the pandemic hit, taking advantage of cheaper prices in once highly coveted suburbs, new data reveals. Although overall Sydney house rents held at record levels of $550 per week in the March quarter, according to the latest Domain Rent Report, in a string of postcodes from the inner west to the city and eastern suburbs, rents have posted double-digit declines in the past year.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/highly-coveted-sydney-suburbs-rec…
# NSW, Rent, Housing market.Island homes: Tasmania election campaign offers few solutions to state’s housing crisis
Amanda Ducker The Guardian (No paywall)With the Covid moratorium on evictions and rent increases and the national rental affordability scheme both ending, another wave of housing stress is swelling. ... David, an out-of-work welder from Alice Springs who slept in his car, planned to vote Labor because he always did. Tex, who slept near the Royal Hobart Hospital in case he had another epileptic seizure or major cardiac event, said he had not voted since the 1980s. Gavin, who was waiting out a two-hour lag between his emergency overnight accommodation closing at 7am and a sister day space opening, did not plan to vote either. What was the point, he wondered, peering out into the bleakness.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/18/island-ho…
# Australia, Homelessness, Housing market, State Government.Big housing for who?
Katelyn Butterss (No paywall)Katelyn Butterss from the Victorian Public Tenants Association talks to Shane and Fiona about the Vic government's so-called 'big housing spend' and proposed ten-year housing strategy - the good, the bad, and the just plain missing in the state's housing policy.
https://www.3cr.org.au/haag/episode-202103241730/big-housing-who
# Audio Australia, Public and community housing, Housing affordability, State Government.Long-term rental licenses for Denver’s landlords going in front of a council committee
Conrad Swanson (Paywall)From the United States ... By one estimate, Denver has about 54,000 homes, condos, row houses and apartment complexes that are rented out. A new proposal before the City Council would require landlords to pay for long-term licenses for each property. (Denver Post)
https://www.denverpost.com/2021/04/14/denver-long-term-rental-li…
# International, Rent, Landlords and agents.