Category Archives: Renting

Beachside apartments deemed ‘affordable’ cost $1,000 a week. Is the NSW policy helping renters or developers?

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Developers flock to build ‘affordable’ housing – but are poised to reap benefits while tenants could pay 50% of post-tax income in rent

A small block of units on Clovelly Road built in 2021 was granted extra floor space so the developer could add five affordable units, taking the total development to 13. The Sydney units, three minutes’ walk from the beach, with parking and a bus stop outside, are in a highly desirable spot.

But “affordable” they are not.

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When Ziggy’s bond was withheld after eviction without cause from his Sydney rental, he challenged it – and won

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Advocates say it should be easier to dispute bond claims, as tenants in Australia’s toughest rental markets are increasingly losing their deposits

Ziggy Tow and his housemates thought they had had enough trouble after their property manager evicted them without grounds and listed their inner-Sydney home for an extra $300 a week.

Then the property manager claimed back all of the $3,400 they paid in bond to cover cleaning and repair fees.

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Australian property investors squeezing out first-time buyers as record borrowing and rate cuts drive purchases

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Pressure on first home buyers heightens as investors target lower-priced homes and more affordable regions

Property investors borrowed a record sum, nearly $130bn, to buy homes over the year to June, supported by interest rate cuts but squeezing out first-time buyers.

Banks made almost 200,000 new loans to landlords over the year, the most since 2022, while the number of new first-home mortgages slipped to 116,000.

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‘A time of great anxiety’: renters fear surge in no-grounds evictions before NSW ban comes into force

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Housing organisations welcome the new laws but are bracing for a spike in evictions before the change takes effect

Renters and advocates are worried there could be a surge in no-grounds evictions in New South Wales over the coming month as landlords act ahead of the law changing in mid-May.

The Tenants’ Union of NSW says it’s a “real risk” and the Minns government has dropped the ball by not putting interim measures in place to protect renters.

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‘Australia is a landlord’s market’: rents still at record high despite slow growth, report shows

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Kingsford Smith, Bradfield, Sydney, and Warringah in New South Wales and Fadden in Queensland are the five most expensive electorates, data shows

Rents are growing at the slowest rate in four years thanks in part to increased supply, but are still at record highs, Domain’s March Quarterly report has revealed.

It comes as Anglicare Australia launches a heat map showing rental affordability in each electorate, with Kingsford Smith, Bradfield, Sydney, and Warringah in New South Wales and Fadden in Queensland the five least-affordable electorates in the country.

7.7% in Darwin to $700 per week;

6.2% in Perth to $690 per week;

5.1% in Adelaide to $620 per week;

4.8% in Brisbane to $650 per week;

3.6% in Hobart to $570 per week;

3.35% in Sydney to $775 per week;

2.2% in Canberra to $700 per week; and

1.8% in Melbourne to $580 per week.

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Retirees who rent ‘really struggling’ financially, researchers say – and the problem is getting worse

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Two-thirds of retirees in private rentals live in poverty, Grattan report finds, with more than half reporting net worth of less than $25,000

Two in three retirees who rent privately owned homes live in poverty and the problem will get worse, a new report has found.

Most older working Australians who rent do not have sufficient savings to keep paying rent in their retirement, according to the report from the Grattan Institute.

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Middle-income Australians experiencing rental stress with a third of pay spent on housing, report shows

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Rent has increased by 36% nationally since Covid, CoreLogic finds, which equates to an extra $171 a week on average

Even Australians on median incomes are in rental stress, a new report has found, with households on middle incomes spending 33% of their wages on housing.

Last year saw the smallest annual rental increase since 2021, going up 4.8% over the year – down from 8.1% in 2023, CoreLogic’s report found.

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Average renter would take 8.3 years to save enough for a house deposit, new Victorian analysis shows

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Exclusive: PBO report based on wage growth, house prices and rent rises says nearly a decade needed if 20% of gross income is put aside

It could take almost a decade for the average Victorian renter who puts aside 20% of their gross income to save enough money for a home deposit, according to analysis from the state’s independent Parliamentary Budget Office.

But if rents were to increase in line at the historically high rate seen in 2022 and 2023, the time needed to save for a deposit could blow out to more than 65 years.

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Falling house prices and drop in Victorian rental numbers could mark rise of owner-occupiers

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Buyers looking to move in could benefit from 6.5% drop in market since March 2022 as state claims largest share of first home buyer finance

Owner-occupier buyers in Victoria could benefit from an investor sell-off that has been gathering momentum alongside falling house prices, an expert says.

Data from Victoria’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing revealed the number of rentals fell by almost 25,000 – or 3.6% – across the state over a year.

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Perverse incentives leave young Australians locked out of community housing, study finds

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Researchers find providers stand to lose 46% of possible income if they rent to young people compared with those on higher welfare payments

Thousands of young people are missing out on a safe place to live each year because community housing providers get more rent from older adults, research has revealed.

The lead author of the University of New South Wals research, Dr Ryan van den Nouwelant, said providers stood to lose 46% of the possible rental income if they chose a young person over an adult on a higher social security payment.

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Real estate agent who published identity of NSW tenant after one-star Google review broke privacy laws, commission finds

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Noonan Real Estate Agency in Sydney forced to apologise after it disclosed renter’s full name, occupation and financial circumstances to global audience

A New South Wales real estate agent who exposed the personal details of a tenant who left a bad Google review broke privacy laws, Australia’s information commission has found.

After the tenant, who has not been named for legal reasons, gave Noonan Real Estate Agency a one-star review in 2021, the agency responded by disclosing his full name, occupation and financial circumstances, according to a written decision.

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More Australians being ‘priced out’ of homes by big rent hikes, advocates fear

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Renters in some cities forced to spend on average nearly $15,000 more a year on rent since the Covid pandemic, analysis reveals

Renters in Australian capital cities are on average spending nearly $15,000 more a year to rent a house since the pandemic, analysis has revealed.

Research from the advocacy organisation Everybody’s Home showed on average renters in capitals are paying $14,700 more annually to rent a house, and $9,600 more to rent a unit compared with 2020.

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Australia’s steepest and longest rental surge in history may be nearing end, figures show

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Annual growth is at multi-year lows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, suggesting the stretch of rent rises may have peaked, Domain says

Annual rent increases for houses have hit multi-year lows in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, suggesting a relentless stretch of rising rents may have peaked, a new report has found.

Renters are still feeling the pinch from record high prices but the data in Domain’s Rent Report revealed the lowest September quarter growth rate since 2019 for houses and 2020 for units.

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Australia’s housing crisis may be starting to ease as home prices fall in four capital cities

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New data also shows auction figures softening while rent rises are at their slowest pace in years

Australia’s housing crisis may be starting to ease with dwelling price rises tapering off and rents increasing at their slowest pace in four years, data groups say.

Property values increased 0.4% in September, close to the 0.3% rise recorded for both the previous two months, CoreLogic reported. PropTrack’s housing index was basically flat, rising just 0.04% for the month.

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How the most affluent Australians disproportionately benefit from negative gearing

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Those in the top tax bracket three times more likely to be negatively geared property investor, says economist

Negative gearing helps high-earning Australians the most, with those with income of more than $180,000 annually snaring almost one-quarter of the benefits, despite numbering just 5% of taxpayers.

Data from the Australian Taxation Office showed people who earn more than $180,000 were able to lower their collective tax bill by $1.3bn in 2021-2022 through negative gearing. The $1.3bn was roughly 25% of all the losses on rental properties claimed by taxpayers in that financial year.

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NSW to help renters avoid added app fees and make it easier to keep a pet

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Landlords will have to offer convenient ways to avoid extra charges when paying the rent

New South Wales renters will no longer be made to pay extra fees when they pay the rent and will have greater rights to keep a pet in a suite of reforms to be announced on Monday.

The state government plans to introduce legislation to modernise the state’s rental regulation into parliament in October.

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Labor push for vote on help-to-buy bill delayed in Senate – as it happened

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White House marks three years since signing of Aukus agreement

Happy three-year anniversary of the signing of Aukus, to those who observe.

Three years ago, President Biden and our Australian and United Kingdom partners committed to Aukus, an enhanced security partnership that promotes a free and open Indo-Pacific that is secure and stable.

As this partnership has grown, it has strengthened the security of our allies in the region as well as our own security here at home. Over the past three years, our countries have made significant strides in supporting Australia’s acquisition of a conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarine capability.

That is bad news for Australian solar homes.

To create space for inflexible nuclear power plants ramming energy into the grid, millions of household solar systems will be the first casualty.

Solar power is already being switched off in South Australia when it makes so much free power available that it exceeds electricity demand.

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NSW moves to outlaw asking tenants to pay for their own background checks on renter ‘blacklists’

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Minns government announces reforms to end practice of rental property platforms soliciting payments from applicants

Rental property application platforms would be prohibited from asking prospective tenants in New South Wales to pay for their own background checks under proposed new laws.

The Minns Labor government on Tuesday announced it would introduce the legislation after feedback from renters who said they were often told that paying these “optional charges” would increase their chance of securing a home.

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Fears NSW renters could be mass-evicted ahead of proposed law change

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Advocates welcome premier Chris Minns’s move to ban no-grounds evictions but worry about renters in the meantime

Rental advocates are warning about mass no-grounds evictions in New South Wales between now and the end of the year unless the state government acts to stop dodgy landlords.

Over the weekend, the state Labor government announced it would introduce legislation to stop no-grounds evictions in September. The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said he hoped it would be passed and come into effect by the start of 2025.

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NSW Labor rejects conference motion to repeal anti-protest and youth bail laws – as it happened

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Turning to US politics, Greber says:

It’s a massive shift. You can see it in the way the Democrats feel the momentum.

One of my old sources, I used to be a correspondent in DC, one of my old sources it was as if a month ago the doctor walked in and said, “I’m sorry the test results are terrible, you got three months to live.”

They don’t have many options other than hitting people with mortgages to reduce demand in the economy, which by the way has been driven by an awful lot of federal and state government spending.

The RBA needs to get on top of this and unfortunately people who have mortgages will be the ones who are hit hardest.

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