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
They built a Sydney suburb at a train station but nobody came
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When Leppington train station opened in February 2015, it was regarded as a rare Sydney example of how urban planning should work: build the infrastructure first, then the homes. But a decade later, it may serve as a warning of what not to do. Far from becoming the “Burwood of the south-west”, as urban planner David White dubbed it at the time, Leppington is still the end of a train line to nowhere.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/they-built-a-sydney-suburb-a…
# Hot topic NSW, .Homeless woman forced to pay $5,000 as council threatens to evict her from friend's property
Joe Attanasio Yahoo News (No paywall)A domestic violence survivor who battled for years to put a roof over her head is again facing homelessness after her local council's "ridiculous" demand. Geelong woman Teena Keys lost her business and fled an abusive marriage during the pandemic and as a result was forced to couch surf for three years around the state of Victoria, after being rejected from a total of 60 rental properties. Keys says she had all but run out of options when she decided to build a tiny home on her friend's 100-acre property in Anakie, about 73 kilometres southwest of Melbourne late last year.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/homeless-woman-forced-to-pay-5000-as-c…
# Hot topic Australia, Domestic violence, Eviction, Rent.Revealed: the Sydney suburbs set for explosive home price rises after rate cut
Aidan Devine news.com.au (No paywall)A much awaited interest rate cut could spark another explosion in home prices, adding over $30,000 to the average cost of properties in many Sydney suburbs in the first month alone, modelling has revealed. The analysis provided exclusively to the Saturday Telegraph showed Sydney had a history of being much more sensitive to rate falls than other cities, with previous cuts heralding in strong growth conditions. This uplift has tended to be immediate and the average boost to prices in the first month after previous Reserve Bank announcements of a cash rate cut was nearly 1.3-1.5 per cent in most suburbs.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/sydney-nsw/revealed-…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.I’m a real estate agent, and even I think renters should have 20-year leases
Jacob Caine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Aspiring to own your home has long been a cornerstone of our national identity. It is an idea deeply embedded in our cultural narrative – a symbol of success, security, and, most Aussies insist, a right. This belief, however, has come at a significant cost to a growing segment of our community. By holding on to the notion that home ownership is the ultimate marker of success, we have shaped a society and system that regards those who rent as a subclass.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-m-a-real-estate-agent-and-even…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.How to get lower rent: Aussie tenants and landlords get creative in the housing crisis
Kylie Dulhunty Domain (No paywall)Three months ago, Blue Mountains grandmother, Karren, faced an unimaginable prospect – living in her car. The proud 63-year-old had spent the past five years renting a room in a friend’s home, but with that connection moving north, Karren came to a chilling realisation. She couldn’t afford to rent the entire home or any other in the tight, expensive mid-Mountains market. Karren, who not too long ago ran a successful cleaning business before her health dictated a slowdown, had lived in the area since 1987 and wasn’t keen to move to another area.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/how-to-get-get-cheaper-rent-aussi…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.Should Evictions Be Banned After Hurricanes and Climate Disasters?
Patrick Sisson Bloomberg (No paywall)At the height of the 2021 hurricane season, Congressperson Val Demings, who represented Florida’s District 10 in the US House of Representatives, introduced a bill that would have mandated an automatic 90-day moratorium on evictions in areas impacted by disasters. But the bill failed to pass, and the following year, when Hurricane Ian tore through central Florida, the costliest storm in state history triggered the kind of tenant crisis the bill was designed to help prevent.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-08/hurricanes-wi…
# Must read International, Disasters, Eviction, Rent.Cost of house rentals continue to rise
Clodagh Rice BBC (No paywall)The cost of renting a home in Northern Ireland has risen by 10% in the last year, according to data from PropertyPal. Average rent in Northern Ireland is £891 per month, but prices can vary depending on the location. The Belfast area has seen the largest annual increase, with the average rent now £1,027 per month. The property website says each advertised rental property had an average of 73 enquiries over the past 3 months.
# Hot topic International, Rent, Starting a tenancy.Vancouver housing expert questioning consensus finds a following in SF
Keith Menconi SF Examiner (No paywall)Want to solve California’s affordability crisis? The popular answer these days is to allow developers to build more homes. Supporters say it’s an intuitive solution that follows the basic logic of supply and demand laid out in economics 101. But as San Francisco city officials move forward with a controversial plan to allow much denser housing development across large swaths of The City, some residents who oppose that effort are embracing a heterodox housing researcher who argues that the mainstream housing consensus is simply wrong.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/housing/why-a-vancouver-housing-…
# Hot topic International, Rent.