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
‘Only if the return stacks up’: Super funds will demand sweeteners to back Labor housing plan
Simone Fox Koob The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The federal government will have to put “something in the tin” to make social and affordable housing an attractive investment for superannuation funds, with experts warning of a raft of complications in making its new housing accord a success. Last month the federal government released the National Housing Accord, a key plank of this year’s budget, which will explore ways to facilitate superannuation and institutional capital investment in social and affordable housing. It aims to build 1 million new homes over five years from 2024. The super industry broadly welcomed the accord, but funds are expected to be cautious given laws require that members’ financial interests come first in investment decisions. Super funds have historically shied away from residential housing due to low returns. Grattan Institute economic policy program director Brendan Coates said super funds could be attracted to the idea of acquiring another asset class to which they can allocate some of the more than $3 trillion of superannuation savings they manage, but “they’re only going to do it if the return stacks up, and that means government would have to subsidise it”.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/only-if-the-re…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Housing market, Landlords and agents.‘It’s going to get worse’: Larger rental crisis looms as vacancies hit record lows
Melissa Heagney The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Tenants are facing the toughest rental market ever in Australia with rental vacancy rates falling to another low in October, new data shows. The market, already in crisis across the country, is expected to worsen as the new academic year begins in a few months, experts say. ... In Sydney, it fell to a record 1 per cent, while Melbourne dropped to a record 1.1 per cent. A balanced market is considered to be about 3 per cent. Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said conditions were worsening. ... Tenants’ Union of NSW chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said renters were making up to 100 applications for a home unsuccessfully, sometimes after receiving a no-grounds eviction with a set end date. “It pushes people into quite unsafe environments,” Patterson Ross said. “They have to compromise on location but also on the quality and the size, and that can mean people are placing themselves in harm’s way in order to keep a roof over their head because there just aren’t the options available to them. “This is really a very risky way to run an essential service.”
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/it-s-going-to-get-worse-lar…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Families, Housing affordability, Housing market.JP Morgan Wants to Make Tenant Data Available to Every Landlord
Chhloe Xiang (No paywall)On Monday, J.P. Morgan Chase announced that it was piloting a new platform called “Story,” an online real estate management that allows landlords to manage their portfolio of properties, collect rent payments, screen tenants, and view market insights including sales prices and vacancy rates. ... “It's one thing to just enable tenants to submit rent payments online, those kinds of platforms are not uncommon and something that JP Morgan's platform is intended to help do. But these kinds of platforms are aimed at delivering insights to real estate management companies based on data analytics in a space where there's already an abundance of technologies that are making decisions about who gets and maintains access to housing,” [said] Ridhi Shetty, the Policy Counsel with the Center for Democracy and Technology's Privacy & Data Project ... “There are ways in which technology could be leveraged to better improve the lives of renters. Instead, what we're seeing is technology being leveraged to automate inequality for tenants, especially in a moment when their cost of living is being squeezed by massive rent increases.” [said] René Moya, a tenant organizer with the Debt Collective.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7bkyn/jp-morgan-wants-to-make-t…
# International, Privacy and access, Rent, Landlords and agents.Why do we have such low rental vacancy? It doesn’t mean a shortage of houses
Cameron Murray The Guardian (No paywall)When the number of rental advertisements falls we often hear that rental “vacancy” is low, indicating a “shortage” of housing. But this story confuses a number of concepts. In this piece, I do two things: First, I show how rental vacancy in the housing market is analogous to the unemployment rate in labour markets. Second, I explain how low rental vacancy is a symptom of the rental price adjustment process itself, not an independent force acting on prices (ie rental price change and vacancy are co-determined by the same process).
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/05/why-do-we-…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.State regulators considering action over real estate websites pressuring rental applicants
Bension Siebert ABC (No paywall)Regulators in four states are considering taking action after an ABC investigation into real estate websites that pressure rental applicants to pay for their own background checks. The ABC confirmed at least 160 real estate agencies have used the 2Apply platform to process applications for more than 1,700 properties across every Australian capital city and most major regional centres. 2Apply urges rental applicants to "stand out from the pack" by paying for their own background checks. Tenants can decline to pay, but their rating is capped at four out of five stars, and they must tick a box that says: "No thanks, I don't want to verify my identity." ... University of New South Wales tenancy law expert Chris Martin said receiving payment from prospective tenants as part of rental applications could be illegal in several jurisdictions. "There's a good argument, I think, that that's unlawful under the rules in Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia," Dr Martin said. ... Now, government regulators in each of those states have confirmed they are examining the issue. ... The ABC also understands NSW Fair Trading is reviewing the issue.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-04/regulators-examining-rent…
# Australia, Privacy and access, Landlords and agents.Eastern suburbs should not be ‘punished’ with more housing, says Liberal hopeful
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Liberal candidate for Vaucluse has attempted to neutralise a debate about overdevelopment with her ‘teal’ rival by declaring the eastern suburbs should not be “punished” with more housing – despite Premier Dominic Perrottet’s drive to boost supply of new homes.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/eastern-suburbs-should-not-b…
# NSW, Housing market, Local Government, Sydney.'Rental prices make me feel pushed out of my hometown’
BBC (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... As inflation continues to have an impact on the cost of living, many tenants in the private rental sector are now facing higher prices and less choice. The housing charity Shelter suggests problems with renting could play a key part in how people choose to vote at the next election, and even see marginal constituencies changing political colour. The BBC spoke to renters living in Hastings and Rye - a Conservative seat in East Sussex.
# Video International, Rent, Housing market, Personal stories.Rental Crisis
Richard Aedy ABC (Paywall)Owning your home is the Australian dream, so we're told. But increasingly, more of us are renting. And that presents a whole other set of problems. Renters throughout the country are struggling to not only afford a place to live but to find a home. Why? And what can be done about it? (ABC Radio National)
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/themoney/rental-cr…
# TUNSW in the media, Audio Australia, Rent, Housing market.