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
California's homeless crisis is out of control. Don't let evictions make it worse
Editorial (Paywall)From the United States ... The best way to prevent homelessness is keeping people in their homes. (San Francisco Chronicle)
https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Editorial…
# International, Eviction, Homelessness.Time for a crackdown on ‘liar loans’ to douse home price bonfire
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)According to the latest “liar loans” survey released last month by UBS, the share of home loans on which people freely admit their information has been “misstated” has risen to 41 per cent, up from 27 per cent in 2015.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/time-for-a-crackdown…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Time for a crackdown on ‘liar loans’ to douse home price bonfire
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Amid rapidly inflating home prices, all borrowers face a massive incentive to leverage to the hilt – out of necessity for home buyers and, for investors, to ensure maximum returns. As Reserve Bank assistant governor Michele Bullock put it recently: “When prices are rising very rapidly and there are expectations that this will continue, borrowers are more likely to overstretch their financial capacity in order to purchase property.”
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/time-for-a-crackdown…
# NSW, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Theme for International Tenants’ Day 2021 and this year’s IUT film
(No paywall)International Union of Tenants, IUT has chosen the theme: ”Covid recovery, climate, and construction” for the International Tenants’ Day 2021. The theme reflects our hope for covid-19 pandemic recovery, a renewed emphasis, and solutions for the climate crisis together with the construction of affordable housing for all. See the film here. (International Union of Tenants)
https://www.iut.nu/news-events/theme-of-international-tenants-da…
# Must read NSW, Campaigns and law reform, Coronavirus COVID-19, International.Older women facing homelessness in Australia: from awareness to action
Robert Mowbray Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)On Friday, 17 September 2021 HAAG organised the online forum, ‘At Risk 2021 Forum’, hoping to move us on from an acknowledgement of the problem to real action to address it. The half day forum brought together advocates from across the housing and homelessness sector, researchers, journalists, decision makers and women with lived experience. In this short blog Robert Mowbray, the Tenants' Union's Older Renters' Project Officer, provides a summary of the highlights and key takeaways from the forum.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/older-women-facing-homelessness-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Homelessness, Older people, Women.More deaths as cold creeps into Australian homes
Melissa Coade The Mandarin (No paywall)Housing advocates have warned that the poor thermal performance of homes in South Australia is associated with more than 600 deaths each year. .... The report was commissioned by tenant advocacy organisation Better Renting and identified that as temperatures went down during the SA winter, death rates went up. Better Renting executive director Joel Dignam said that despite the fact that Australia experienced milder winters compared to other places in the world, the way that the homes in Australia are built make them less resilient when the temperature drops. What this showed, he said, was that warmer countries experienced higher rates of deaths (mainly due to respiratory and cardiovascular disease in older people) correlated to cold weather. “A cold home doesn’t just mean higher power bills, it means living every day with a threat to your health,” Dignam said.
https://www.themandarin.com.au/170278-more-deaths-as-cold-creeps…
# Australia, Rent, Health, Minimum habitability standards, Older people.The feared eviction ‘tsunami’ has not yet happened. Experts are conflicted on why.
Rachel Siegel and Jonathan O'Connell (No paywall)From United States ... When the Supreme Court decided to strike down a federal ban on evictions in August, lawmakers and housing experts mentioned a slew of devastating metaphors — cliff, tsunami, tidal wave — to describe the national eviction crisis they saw coming. One month later, however, many of those same authorities find themselves wondering: Where is the cliff? ... Housing and eviction experts offered a mix of guesses about why a feared onslaught of evictions has not yet materialized, including that the wave could still be coming. The pace at which courts handle cases varies widely across the country, and some courts may be severely backlogged. In some regions of the country, the federal eviction moratorium did little to slow filings amid the pandemic and, in other areas, protections are in place. Some tenants may have moved on their own to avoid eviction. Housing experts don’t believe the country has solved its eviction issues, and there are still places where evictions have risen since the ban ended. ... Still, the overall picture has confused experts who had grim warnings for the looming crisis once the federal ban was no longer in place. Those same experts are hesitant to say the wave won’t come. (The Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/28/eviction-clif…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.New Zealand Steps in to Prevent Housing Bubble
Renee McKeown (No paywall)New Zealand is scrapping tax incentives for investors in an effort to cool one of the hottest property markets on the planet as it responds to the country’s “housing problem”. Property values have increased nearly eight times faster than income with prices up 27 per cent on average according to Corelogic. The draft legislation would limit the availability of deduction for interest expenses for existing residential properties, however would not extend to new builds. Finance minister Grant Robertson said they needed to stem investor demand. “We want to curb investors’ appetite for existing residential properties but also want to stimulate investment in new housing,” Robertson said. (The Urban Developer)
https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/articles/nz-government-steps-i…
# International, Rent, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents.