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
Mould in your rental? It could be making you sick
Dee Salmin ABC (No paywall)Getting your landlord to fix simple things like leaking taps or broken lights can be a drama - so what do you do if you've got a full-blown mould problem? You do have rights. Especially if the mould is making you sick. (ABC triplej HACK)
https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/mould-in-rentals-is…
# Australia, Rent, Repairs, Mould.Calls for sunset clause on developers to stop 'land banking' amid soaring northern NSW house prices
Leah White, Bruce Mackenzie, and Bronwyn Herbert ABC (No paywall)Councils on the New South Wales north coast, where skyrocketing property prices have sparked a growing housing crisis, say thousands of blocks of land approved for residential development are being kept off the market. The latest house price figures from CoreLogic show property values on the Northern Rivers have risen more in the past 12 months than anywhere else in Australia. House values in the Richmond-Tweed climbed 21.9 per cent in the 12 months to April, while unit values increased by 15.5 per cent, according to the data.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-19/calls-for-sunset-clause-t…
# NSW, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.Wealth divide between young and old narrowed during pandemic
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The record gulf between the wealth and wellbeing of the oldest and youngest Australians is shrinking for the first time in seven years despite the coronavirus pandemic, but some of the improvement has been at the expense of retirees who are increasingly needing help for homelessness. ... The improvement in the index in 2020 was partly due to better outcomes for young people, including longer life expectancies, a lift in first home buyers getting into the property market and ramped up federal government assistance for workers. But another factor narrowing the divide was a reduction in the welfare of older people. While young Australians remain the most likely to access homelessness services, the report found the biggest rise in demand for this help in the past year was from older people. “This steep rise for older Australians suggests that challenges in securing affordable housing is affecting increasingly greater swathes of the population,” the report says. (Refers to 2021 Australian Actuaries Intergenerational Equity Index report.)
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/wealth-divide-between-yo…
# Research alert Australia, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Older people, Young people.‘Is someone breaking fingers in here?’: The food problem in aged care
Clay Lucas The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When Nicholas Hall started as a chef at The Bays aged care home in Hastings in 2018, he recalls noticing something strange: almost all the elderly residents there seemed to be on a diet where their food was cut up. ... Later, he was told by another staff member the reason: “If you put that down on the paperwork, they get more government funding because the customer or the resident needs more service.” ... But there is a problem with a federal government once again handing operators more money without being prescriptive on how they spend it.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/victoria/is-someone-breaking-fin…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people.Neglected Camperdown house sells for $1.62 million at 'slightly absurd' auction
Maryanne Taouk ABC (No paywall)A derelict five-metre wide house with a hole in the ceiling has sold for a whopping $1.62 million, becoming one of the most expensive homes for its size ever sold in Sydney. The one-bedroom, one-bathroom property at 26 Eton St, Camperdown, was expected to sell for around $500,000. ... Ms Sweeney, who lives in the Inner West suburb of Russell Lea, said seeing houses like the Eton Street property sell for outrageous amounts was "depressing". ... "Right now, people my age can't even afford to rent in Sydney let alone buy," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-17/derelict-sydney-house-in-…
# NSW, Housing affordability, Housing market.Why are people so pissed off about the refurb of Sydney's Sirius building?
(No paywall)A glossy newspaper ad has revealed what Sydney's iconic Sirius building is going to look like, and a lot of people aren't happy. Scroll through this post which follows the story posted in the 'Housing News Digest' on 17 May 2021.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CO9aUiXNEHH/?igshid=11ds6acysqw1n
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Public and community housing, Estate renewal, Housing market, State Government.Australia is unlikely to ever go back to pre-GFC interest rates. We can’t afford to
Greg Jericho The Guardian (No paywall)With low wage growth and high mortgage values, we won’t be seeing interest rates climb back anytime soon ... The last time the Reserve Bank increased interest rates was November 2010, and the budget estimates it won’t happen again for at least four more years. But importantly, given the increased size of mortgages, we are unlikely to ever again see interest rates as high as they were before the GFC.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2021/may/18/aus…
# Australia, Housing market.Rough sleepers in England to get £203m funding to help them off the streets
BBC (No paywall)More rough sleepers in England will be helped off the streets and into housing this year as part of a £203m programme, the government has announced. Some 2,688 people were estimated to be sleeping rough on any single night in England last autumn. Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said the money will be given to councils to support shelters and specialist mental health or addiction services. But charity Crisis warned the funding "will only scratch the surface".
# International, Homelessness.