JobKeeper and the COVID Supplement to JobSeeker benefits will be gone in a week. The combined effect will be to halve some recipients’ incomes and the rent they can afford.
Even before the pandemic added to their financial stresses, a survey of international students suggests more than 20,000 were renting beds that are available to them for only certain hours.
The rise of build-to-rent development will affect a lot of Australians. Despite the rosy promises, tax, design, planning and tenancy reforms will be needed to avoid the potential pitfalls.
Trying to find housing can be a nightmare for pet owners, especially those who need it in a crisis. The inconsistencies from state to state and between different forms of housing demand reform.
Analysis of online listings on common online platforms shows even modest reductions in Airbnb listings increased supply of longer-term rentals. The result was lower local rents.
The impacts of the pandemic on jobs and incomes have been so widespread and severe that low-income households can afford very few properties despite rents falling in some parts of our capital cities.
Buyers and renters are very rarely told the energy rating of housing, but don’t blame the agents. As it’s voluntary for existing homes, very few are rated, so it’s not a big factor in the market.
Accommodation providers are reporting huge increases in the numbers of people coming to them for help. They’d love to be able to use newly vacant rental housing, but it’s not a lasting solution.
High rents and insecurity are constant sources of financial and emotional stress for low-income women. They describe what it’s like struggling to survive and being one step away from being homeless.
Older women have been the fastest-growing group of homeless people in recent years. New research shows about 240,000 women aged 55 or older and another 165,000 women aged 45-54 are at risk.
The pandemic has brought to a head deep-rooted problems with how housing is provided in Australia. Fortunately, the solutions can play a central role in the national recovery process.
The condominium model has had lingering ailments since its birth, and the new grim reapers of coronavirus and financial strife could bring about its demise.
Current measures prohibiting the eviction of tenants and helping them through the financial crisis won’t last forever. A 40-year-old voucher program might be a longer term solution.
Many want to do the right thing – tenants and landlords alike. But they lack guidance on how to go about it while still keeping their own heads above water.
Government action to control rents isn’t unprecedented. Menzies did it in the second world and subsequent state measures kept rents in check for decades. Now extreme circumstances justify it again.
Even before COVID-19, 22% of international students often went without food or necessities and almost half depended on paid work to cover the rent. With many of their jobs gone, they’re now desperate.
Professor of Social Epidemiology and Director of the Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Housing at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne
Professor; School of Economics, Finance and Property, and Director, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Curtin Research Centre, Curtin University