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
The shocking figure that reveals the depth of Sydney’s housing crisis
Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The number of building company failures in NSW has almost trebled over the past three years, hampering the sector’s capacity to meet ambitious targets to lift housing supply. Despite record house prices and soaring rents, 1408 NSW construction firms called in administrators during the year to June as inflation and higher interest disrupted the sector.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-shocking-figure-that-rev…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.How did Singapore achieve a home ownership rate of 90 per cent? Can Australia learn anything from it?
Gareth Hutchens ABC (No paywall)There's a country near Australia that has a home ownership rate of 90 per cent. Its government wants widespread home ownership so its citizens feel like they have a stake in the country. It has a tiny land mass, so the dominant housing type is high density flats, the majority of which are built by the country's Housing Development Board (HDB). The government finances the HDB's deficits and provides loans to the HDB so it can extend mortgage loans to homebuyers with an interest rate of 2.6 per cent.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-18/singapore-homeownership-s…
# Hot topic International, .A new era for public housing and landscape-led urbanism
Karakusevic Carson Architects (No paywall)Landscape within the realm of public housing estates has long been contested. Post-war neighbourhoods in particular possess a visible generosity of it: a strong legacy of the modernist-inspired planning of our cities, when acres of green space were created to promote communal forms of living and offset new densities. However, neglect, a sense of insecurity, species monoculture and hostile nearby uses such as car parking and busy roadways have rendered many landscapes unusable. Despite their generosity and original intention, some estate open spaces can play an active role in partitioning communities and severing neighbourhoods.
https://www.karakusevic-carson.com/research/a-new-era-for-public…
# Hot topic International, Public and community housing.Tenants kept awake by cockroaches ‘scuttling across ceiling’ awarded $12,000
Tracy Neal NZ Herald (No paywall)Tenants lived with a cockroach infestation so bad they were kept awake at night by the bugs “scuttling across the ceiling”. The insects also destroyed the original and then the replacement dishwasher in the $1300 weekly rental where the six tenants were blamed for the bug outbreak. They were also threatened with eviction if they did not pay more than $700 to replace a toilet they were blamed for breaking, and were left without a stove top for months before being asked to buy a replacement for $250. Their rent increased to $1400 per week on January 1 this year, and they moved out the following month.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tenants-kept-awake-by-cockroaches-…
# Must read International, Repairs, You want to leave.Marlborough’s rental market ‘still quite tight’
Freddie Wilkie Stuff (No paywall)Marlborough’s rental market is still a “difficult market for tenants” with people “desperately looking for houses”, real estate agents say. Renters needing a place to stay were having a tough time, with low stock availability and difficulties getting long-term rentals. Harcourts Blenheim business manager Jack Feavers said there was a disconnect between supply and demand. “It's a difficult one, because we get people that are so prepared, and reach out months in advance, but often we only find out something is available four to five weeks before it is ready to rent.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350379738/marlboroughs-rental-ma…
# Hot topic International, Rent.San Francisco landlord sued by city, accused of renting out unsafe, unpermitted units
CBS News (No paywall)A San Francisco property owner is being accused of operating as a slumlord in a lawsuit filed by the city alleging unsanitary and unpermitted residences at a property in the Bayview District. Rafael Garcia Sanchez is accused of neglecting to correct a litany of violations dating back to when he acquired the property at 1465 Oakdale Ave. in 2015, including infestations of rodents and cockroaches, unsafe conditions, unpermitted residences and other violations.
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/sf-landlord-sued-by-ci…
# Hot topic International, .Inflation cooled in July but housing prices and rent costs remain high
CBS News (No paywall)New data shows inflation continuing to cool in July, but sticking right below 3% as housing costs and rental prices continue to affect monthly budgets. CBS News senior business and technology correspondent Jo Ling Kent reports.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/inflation-cooled-in-july-but-high-…
# Video International, Rent.Australians are in chronic housing stress. Can Clare O’Neil fix it?
Intifar Chowdhury The Guardian (No paywall)Following Anthony Albanese’s recent cabinet shake-up, the new housing and homelessness minister, Clare O’Neil, was quick to express empathy for troubled renters, touting Labor’s $32bn housing investment and describing the ambitious target of constructing 1.2m homes as “genuinely radical”. But does O’Neil bring anything new to the table? Not necessarily – at least not on the policy front. Housing has become a major focal point for the next federal election. But the government has been described as “fairly flat-footed” in communicating its efforts to voters so far. The perception is that the incumbent is not faring well in this space.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/17/au…
# Must read, Legal significance Australia, Rent.