$50k victory for renters in background checks rort
A NSW Fair Trading investigation has found that 2,300 applicants were illegally charged $19.95 for background checks, despite a law prohibiting such charges.
renters
Tenants back roll-out of Vic insulation regs
An overwhelming majority of renters would like to see Victoria’s proposed domestic energy efficiency laws spread across Australia. The results in a survey by renewable energy company Green are hardly…
Podcast: Renters rights and strata safety fright
Three serious stories straight off the website have caught our attention on the Flat Chat Wrap podcast this week – but there’s a bit of fun too. The first two…
Renters: How the other half (just about) lives
Half of all Australian strata apartments are investment properties that are tenanted. Strata renters must follow all the strata laws, by laws and rules but they have almost no strata…
Podcast: Big ideas, tax bribes and Fonzie flats
This week in the podcast, Sue reports back from a two-day seminar about property investment with the news that, yes, more apartments are going to be built in Australia and…
Apartment rents soar in our two biggest cities
Australia’s rents are continuing to rise rapidly, with median rents hitting record highs across five of the eight capital cities over the past three months. And it’s renters in units…
Housing problems come home to roost in Budget
With Prime Minister Anthony Albanese having pledged to do something about Australia’s housing shortage, the affordability crisis and rent stress, Housing Ministers from the states and territories met this week…
Opinion: Why landlords switch rentals to Airbnb
A few weeks ago I wrote about how short-term holiday lets were impacting on the residential rental market. Reader Jill Saunders in Tasmania didn’t dispute that assertion, but she feels…
Rent bidding ban has backfired, say RE agents
The NSW Government’s ban on agents from engaging in ‘rent bidding’ has backfired, as tenants are not only now more aware that they can offer above the asking rent, they…
Podcast: Death threats and no-fault evictions
Can you imagine that you simply want to exercise your rights to have your defects fixed and a representative from the developer bails you up in the street and tells…
Podcast: Rents rise, clubs bet the house on flats
Surprise, surprise! What started off looking like a barren day on the pod-front, right at the end of the school holidays, turned out to give us a lot to talk…
Covid housing response ‘fast but patchy’ – report
National and state governments’ housing policy responses to the pandemic were fast and mostly effective but too often it was left to landlords and tenants to carry the weight of…