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 shifting tides of Australian tourism in the face of COVID-19: A visual analysis through Airbnb
William Thackway and Christopher Pettit City Futures (No paywall)There are many new challenges facing our cities and regions brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic. These include the impact of global mobility and multiple prolonged lockdowns restricting interstate travel since the pandemic reached Australia in March 2020. Consequently, for the year ending December 2020, the number of international visitors to Australia dropped by 80% from 8.7 million tourists in 2019 to 1.7 million in 2020. Concurrently, domestic overnight visitors have fallen by 38% from 117 to 73 million trips. However, while the foreseeable outlook for international travel is bleak, domestic tourism has experienced a comeback, with domestic travel figures for the end of 2020 nearing 2019 rates. So, who have been the winners and losers of this changing travel landscape? To investigate how travel patterns have shifted within Australia, we looked at changes in Airbnb activity in major tourist areas.
https://blogs.unsw.edu.au/cityfutures/blog/2021/07/the-shifting-…
# Australia, Housing market, Short-term holiday letting.Charities warn thousands at risk of returning to the streets as ‘Everyone In’ hotels close
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)More than one thousand people in London are at risk of returning to the streets as emergency accommodation used to house rough sleepers during the pandemic is wound down, charities have warned. Figures published by Homeless Link show that 2,512 individuals are still living in hotels and other emergency accommodation in London following the government’s effort to house rough sleepers during the pandemic in a scheme known as Everyone In. Homeless Link warns that many of these people could end up returning to the streets when the Everyone In programme ends, alongside thousands of others living in hotels across the country. It comes one day after Inside Housing reported that the government told councils to close the hotels they were using to house rough sleepers by the end of June, unless they had a direct agreement with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to keep one open.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/charities-warn-thousan…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Committed to committal
Giles Peaker (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... This was an appeal by the landlord, Saakib Khan, of an order sentencing him to six months imprisonment for contempt of court for breach of an injunction. The injunction ... was to prevent Saakib Khan from evicting or attempting to evict the tenant and from interfering with his quiet enjoyment of the property and from threatening him with violence or harassing, pestering, or intimidating him. ... The Court of Appeal dismissed the challenge to sentence: 'I have come to the very firm conclusion that, bearing in mind the circumstances and the cynical disregard which the appellant had for the injunction and the court proceedings, though this was a stern sentence, it was not manifestly excessive. The deliberate breach of the terms of the injunction was serious. It had particularly serious consequences in that the respondent and Ms Launders would be rendered homeless during the time of the COVID pandemic. ...' (Nearly Legal: Housing Law News and Comment)
https://nearlylegal.co.uk/2021/07/committed-to-committal/?utm_so…
# Legal significance International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.Soaring rental prices creating housing crisis in regional NSW
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)A growing number of regional cities and towns across NSW are in the midst of a rental crisis, as short supply and a surge in sea and tree changers leaving Sydney see rental prices soar. ... “We keep getting calls from people being evicted in order to make way for higher rents, and then they aren’t able to find a new home that is affordable and are accepting much lower quality and losing amenity, or they have to leave town, then there is a flow-on effect to other regions,” said chief executive [of the Tenants' Union of NSW,] Leo Patterson Ross.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/soaring-rental-prices-creating-ho…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Housing market, Regional NSW.Government urged to build 17,000 homes for domestic violence victims to fix ‘shocking’ situation
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A surge in domestic violence cases during the coronavirus pandemic has prompted calls for the federal government to pour billions of dollars into social housing to close a shortfall of almost 17,000 homes for women fleeing abuse. Spending $7.6 billion on almost 17,000 new homes would help the more than 9000 women a year who become homeless due to domestic and family violence and a lack of stable housing, an Equity Economics report, Nowhere To Go, shows.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/government-urged-to-buil…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Domestic violence, Public and community housing, Federal Government.Paying $500 rent for 'a glorified tent' as regional NSW housing shortage prices people out
Wiriya Sati ABC (No paywall)Since the arrival of COVID-19 and the subsequent exodus of people from the cities, a lack of housing supply in regional NSW has pushed up prices and squeezed locals out of the rental market. Port Macquarie has become an investors market and rents have skyrocketed and there is fierce competition for available properties. Alex and Kylie privately rent a derelict three-bedroom farmhouse in Port Macquarie for $500, where they live with their two children and three dogs. The couple, who do not want their full names published, says the owner has refused requests to undertake repairs to the house. And when they told him they would take the issues up with the tenancy tribunal, they say they were given notice to leave. After applying for about 25 rental properties over three months, Alex and Kylie were unable to find another home to rent. The landlord has allowed the family to stay on, but their rent has increased $100 a week.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-08/housing-shortage-regional…
# NSW, Eviction, Rent, Repairs, Minimum habitability standards, Mould, Regional NSW.Perth average weekly house rent hits six-year high after biggest increase in more than a decade
Herlyn Kaur ABC (No paywall)Perth's average weekly rent has skyrocketed to a six-year high, creating a massive win for landlords while tenants face steep increases in a fiercely competitive market. Katie Lean is just one of those affected, with the spike making life difficult for the 38-year-old single mother with three children aged 15 years and under. She is renting a four-bedroom home in Treeby, a developing suburb more than 20 kilometres south of Perth, as she works full time at a primary school, and prides herself on always paying her bills on time. Her landlord has just asked for a $90 per week increase on rent, after having already increased it by $40 when the rental moratorium lifted at the end of March this year. ... Ms Lean said she was forced to look at other options after she tried to negotiate for a three-month lease, instead of the standard six or 12-month contract, but had it knocked back. She was also recently sent an email with a notice to vacate the property within 30 days, without being given a reason. ... I may find myself at the end of this month with no specific home to go to and having to vacate … obviously, that's a really stressful scenario." David Prestipino writes another story on the same issue. His article is entitled: 'Perth rents hit six-year high as public housing crisis deepens' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/perth-rents-hit-six-year-high-as-public-housing-crisis-deepens-20210708-p587yo.html]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-08/perth-average-weekly-hous…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Housing market, No-grounds evictions.Housing affordability in Regional Australia
Nenad (No paywall)Despite early expectations to the contrary, house prices have continued to increase throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Perhaps more surprising was the increase in median house prices across Regional Australia. In this blog, Nenad walks through the factors influencing regional house pricing and affordability, and looks at the levers Local Government have to affect affordability in their local areas. (.id)
https://blog.id.com.au/2021/housing-analysis/housing-affordabili…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, Local Government, Regional NSW.