New regulations expected to affect tens of thousands of illegal short-term listings
New rules in New York City on Airbnbs and short-term rentals go into effect on Tuesday, with regulations expected to affect tens of thousands of illegal short-term listings.
The latest legislation bulks up enforcement of existing rules on how short-term rentals are allowed to operate in New York City.
Continue reading...Professionals seeking affordable housing are displacing those at risk of homelessness as rents soar
When a boarding house in Sydney’s inner-west was razed by arson last year, taking with it the lives of three residents and leaving eight without homes, the hope was that it would be replaced with a newer, safer version of the same low-cost community housing.
But 12 months is a long time in Sydney’s rampant rental market.
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Continue reading...Half have maximum of a month’s worth of rent put by as costs rise, Shelter survey finds
A third of working tenants in England do not have enough savings to pay rent if they lose their job, putting them at risk of losing their home, according to research by the housing charity Shelter.
Record rents and the rising cost of other household bills are putting tenants’ finances under pressure and mean many are unable to set money aside for emergencies.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: No-fault evictions are rocketing, bills are ballooning and social housing lists are overloaded – what the statistics reveal about renting today and why urgent reform is needed
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Good morning. On average there are 20 people requesting to view each rental property that comes on the market in Britain, more than triple what it was in 2019. In some parts of the north-west, that number inches closer to 30 per property. Moving house has always been stressful, but it has become an all-consuming battle for many people as rents rise and demand outstrips supply.
A chronic housing shortage is the primary reason, however campaigners and tenants have said they cannot wait for the government to build more homes. Rough sleeping increased by 34% in London between 2021 and 2022, while the number of people consistently struggling to pay their rent has increased by 45% since last April to more than 2.5 million, according to the housing charity Shelter.
Global health | Air pollution is helping to drive a rise in antibiotic resistance that poses a significant threat to human health worldwide, a study published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal suggests. Antibiotic resistance is one of the fastest-growing threats to global health, killing an estimated 1.3 million people a year.
Asylum | People seeking refuge who were ordered to live on a giant barge have been reprieved after legal challenges claimed the vessel was unsafe and unsuitable for traumatised people. As the first tranche of 15 people were moved on to the Bibby Stockholm in Portland, Dorset, lawyers said they were intervening to halt the transfer of dozens more on to the 220-bedroom vessel.
Retail | Britain’s stores are being forced to slash their prices to drum up business after dismal summer weather and ever-higher interest rates combined to depress consumer spending in July.
South Korea | The £1m cost of relocating the 4,500-strong UK contingent at the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea will affect the work of the Scout Association for as much as five years, the organisation’s boss has said. Meanwhile South Korea is having to move the thousands remaining out of the way of a typhoon.
Lobbying | The tech firm Palantir, which grew out of a US spy organisation, lobbied the UK disabilities minister to adopt new technology to crack down on benefits fraud, emails released to the Guardian have revealed. The correspondence provides the latest insight into how the firm – co-founded by Peter Thiel, the Donald Trump-supporting libertarian billionaire – is seeking to expand its influence and role within British government.
Continue reading...Estate agents selling Twickenham ‘property’ believe it could have development potential
If climbing the property ladder seems stressful to you, why not consider taking the stairs?
A disused four-storey stairwell at the back of a branch of Starbucks in south-west London has become the latest peculiar piece of property to go on sale in London’s feverish housing market.
Continue reading...Rightmove says average advertised rent in Great Britain is at all-time high of £1,231 a month outside the capital
Private rents in Great Britain have soared to fresh all-time highs and the average amount being asked for outside London is now a third higher than four years ago, figures from Rightmove show.
Despite rental growth running well ahead of inflation, the property website said homes were continuing to be let quickly, with many landlords “still being met with long queues of prospective tenants wanting to view and rent their property”.
Continue reading...Nicole Bent and her daughter are among dozens of homeless families being put up by council in hotel rooms
A hotel getaway should be a time to escape the stresses of everyday life – but for Nicole Bent, life in a hotel has become her everyday. “It’s been demoralising, to be honest. That’s the word I would use to describe this whole experience,” she said of her ongoing three-month stay in a north London Travelodge.
Bent, 28, and her three-year-old daughter have been living in the hotel since the beginning of March, when she was made homeless after her tenancy came to an end and the landlord wanted to sell the property. She is one of dozens of homeless families being housed there by Enfield council while it tries to find her a permanent home.
Continue reading...Campaigners say second homes and holiday lets are taking homes away from residents in hotspots such as Devon and Cumbria
The supply of new homes in some tourist hotspots is being almost completely negated by the rise of second homes and holiday lets, analysis has revealed.
In the Copeland area of the Lake District, which includes the beauty spot of Scafell Pike, there were 426 new homes created in the last three years. Over the same period, 407 existing homes were converted to commercial holiday lets or second homes.
Continue reading...Some women are turning to escort work to meet basic housing costs, charities warn
Women are increasingly being forced to engage in “survival sex” because of the cost of living crisis amid worsening conditions for Britain’s most vulnerable.
Charities warn rising costs paired with years of underfunding mean women, including those with trauma and mental health issues, are having to turn to sex in exchange for housing or to meet other basic needs.
Continue reading...Sadiq Khan describes figures from City Hall analysis as a scandal, with London the worst affected region
Private landlords in England are earning £1.6bn a year in housing benefit in return for providing “non-decent” homes, in what Sadiq Khan has described as a scandal.
The capital is the worst affected region, with £500m in welfare money going on privately rented homes that are in a state of disrepair, cold, damp, lacking modern facilities or do not meet health and safety standards, according to City Hall analysis.
Continue reading...Rics monthly poll shows new buyer inquiries in UK are flat as volume of agreed sales falls further
UK house prices are expected to continue to fall despite surveyors’ expectations that the housing market will stabilise over the next 12 months, a study has shown.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (Rics) monthly survey, which measures the proportion of surveyors reporting new buyer inquiries against those saying they fell, found the net balance was -29% in March, almost flat on the -30% recorded in February.
Continue reading...Average monthly cost of owning 3-bed home is £500 a year less than renting, but the gap is narrowing
Homeowners in the UK are nearly £500 better off a year than renters, according to new research from Halifax.
The average monthly cost of owning a three-bed home for first-time buyers is now £971, which is £42 lower than the average cost of renting an equivalent property, the mortgage lender said. Renters pay on average £1,013 each month – 4% more.
Continue reading...Bill payers stand to collectively save billions if minimum standard raised to a C rating, research suggests
Raising the minimum standard of energy efficiency to a C rating for privately rented homes would save bill payers about £570 a year, research has found.
This would amount to annual savings totalling £1.75bn across the UK, according to the thinktank E3G in a report called Cutting Energy Bills and Raising Standards for Private Renters.
Continue reading...Data suggests private tenants almost three times as likely to be exposed to damp as social housing tenants
Almost a quarter of private rentals in England fail to meet the decent home standards, government figures have revealed, meaning they pose a risk to health, are in disrepair, have poor facilities, or are poorly insulated.
Data from the English Housing Survey, released on Thursday, highlights the poor state of the country’s private rental sector, with 23% of private rentals failing to meet the decent homes standard in 2021-22. That compares with just 13% of owner-occupied homes, and 10% of social housing.
Continue reading...Housing secretary says landlords have been ‘defensive’ over dangerous conditions, after death of Awaab Ishak
Michael Gove has accused social landlords of “complacency” and putting bureaucracy above tenants, as he stepped up his demands for higher standards after the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak from long-term exposure to mould.
The housing secretary told MPs too many landlords had shown “defensive behaviour” when receiving complaints about squalor, but also admitted the extent of dangerous conditions was so great that more funding may be needed fix the problem – potentially setting up a clash with the chancellor.
He and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, have commissioned a review of council tax, which he described as the “second-most unpopular tax in the country”. He promised more detail in the new year.
The government’s target to end rough sleeping is in doubt, with Gove describing it as “a big worry”.
Families hosting refugees from Ukraine will hear within weeks whether they will get continuing payments.
Disabled people in high-rise buildings should have personal evacuation plans, as recommended by the Grenfell Tower public inquiry, despite the Home Office rejecting the call.
Continue reading...Experts say Australia is ‘definitely still in a rental crisis’ but there is only so much people can pay
Twelve months ago, during the height of rental market demand, Carley Eder was issuing lease renewals with price increases of up to $80 a week. Now, her clients will be lucky to have tenants approve $25.
“The market has definitely shifted,” the Central Coast rentals principal said.
Continue reading...High ownership of multiple residences among state MPs has prompted accusations they are ‘blind’ to the escalating rental crisis
More than half of MPs in the New South Wales lower house own multiple residential properties, prompting concerns the state’s politicians are “blind” to record increases in rental prices.
Amid a fresh push for reform to the rental market, an analysis of MP disclosure records show landlords are disproportionately represented on Macquarie Street.
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Continue reading...RICS report says rise in repossessions will add to supply while soaring interest rates price buyers out of market
Homeowners will struggle to make mortgage repayments and repossessions will rise next year as soaring interest rates and falling prices mark the end of the UK’s 13-year housing market boom, according to a sobering report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
The number of inquiries from potential homebuyers fell for a fifth month in a row in September, while sales fell to the lowest level since May 2020 when the housing market all but ground to a halt during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, it said.
Continue reading...It’s a landlord’s market, as hundreds queue to rent properties with negotiable prices that many simply can’t afford
Peak housing bodies are calling for nationally consistent rental laws to crack down on bidding wars putting pressure on tenants in a shrinking market.
Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania have introduced reforms to ban rent bidding – the process of negotiating the price of a rental by advertising a property within a “range” or without a fixed cost.
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Continue reading...Mortgage market meltdown has left many amateur landlords facing a stark choice: to raise rents or sell up
Britain’s amateur landlords have benefited from years of runaway house price inflation, while intense competition among tenants has sent rents soaring. Now, thanks to the meltdown in the mortgage market triggered by last week’s disastrous mini-budget, many face a financial cliff edge.
Figures shared with the Guardian show that the number of new buy-to-let mortgage deals available has plummeted by 55% in less than a week as lenders frantically pulled products and in many cases increased prices.
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