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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Does the government have what it takes to fix aged care?
Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)From funding to legislation to regulation, the aged care system is broken, beset by neglect and fundamentally flawed. That’s the finding of commissioners Lynelle Briggs and Tony Pagone, QC, in the final report of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety made public this week. ... But how will a government shy about tax increases fund improvements to the system and how will it tackle a complete overhaul of the way the country approaches care for our elderly?
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/does-the-government-have…
# Hot topic Australia, Federal Government, Older people.House price ‘blast-off’ rings affordability alarm bells
Noel Towell and Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A year ago, as the coronavirus pandemic took hold, many experts predicted house prices across the nation would tank. But an unprecedented rollout of government stimulus, unleashed to nurse the economy through the pandemic, has turbocharged the residential real estate market.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/house-price-blast-off-r…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market.‘No way’: Calls for shut-down over Meriton development’s size
Angus Thompson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The size of a $3 billion development by Harry Triguboff’s Meriton in Sydney’s east has caused a neighbouring council to call for a halt to construction because of the impact of the population increase on nearby suburbs.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/no-way-calls-for-shut-down-o…
# NSW, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.Ageing disgracefully: Japan puts our nursing homes to shame
Elizabeth Farrelly The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A gentle ramp spirals into the pool that lies curled in the floor of the light-filled, tepee-shaped pavilion. It’s wheelchair access, this ramp, but it feels symbolic and vaguely yin-yang, like some ultra-pale azure catseye catching the light. The tepee is one of five that, clad in blond ply, nestle within a mountain forest in Shizuoka, Japan. Designed by Tokyo architect Issei Suma, it’s the retirement project of two Japanese women – a social worker and a chef – who offer fresh local meals and nursing care for local seniors. Contrast Australia’s aged care. Here – as this week’s royal commission report confirmed – seniors can expect routine neglect, malnutrition and abuse, both physical and sexual. How much of this, if any, would change if the places themselves weren’t isolated, internalised, artificial, institutional and blindingly ugly?
https://www.smh.com.au/national/ageing-disgracefully-japan-puts-…
# Hot topic Australia, Federal Government, Older people.Where People Pretend to Be 'Landchads' and Make Fun of 'Rentoids'
Gita Jackson (No paywall)From the United States ... Are you sick of rentoids being late with your money, or tired of being made the bad guy for evicting tenants during the middle of the pandemic? Well then head on over to the subreddit Love for Landlords, to talk about how great it is to own property with your fellow landchads. Love for Landlords started last May, and despite looking sincere on the surface, it's all a big joke. (Vice)
https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjp9ab/where-landchads-let-loose…
# International, Landlords and agents.The seller’s dilemma: Sydney homeowners caught out by market moving too fast to buy in
Kate Burke Domain (Paywall)Rapidly rising property prices and fierce competition for houses is making it harder to buy and sell in the same market, leaving Sydney homeowners with a difficult choice. Do they sell first, and run the risk of not finding another home before settlement, or of further price rises? Or buy first, and hope they can sell their existing property quickly and for a good price?
https://www.domain.com.au/news/the-sellers-dilemma-sydney-homeow…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market.NT Government unveils building legislation reforms after Darwin apartment block debacle
Jano Gibson ABC (No paywall)The Northern Territory government has unveiled plans to avoid a repeat of a debacle that saw more than 200 unit owners notified that their buildings had potentially significant structural defects in need of urgent and expensive rectification.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-04/nt-government-unveils-bui…
# Australia, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Housing and housing assistance pathways with pets
Wendy Stone and others AHURI (No paywall)This free webinar will present findings from a forthcoming AHURI research project — Housing and housing assistance pathways with companion animals: risks, costs, benefits and opportunities — led by Prof Wendy Stone, Swinburne University of Technology. This study investigates the policy and regulatory settings that shape housing options available to households that own pets. It considers housing and housing assistance contexts nationally across tenures, sectors (e.g. ownership, private rental housing), emergency/crisis accommodation and for diverse population groups receiving income and housing assistance support.
https://www.bigmarker.com/ahuri/Housing-and-housing-assistance-p…
# Hot topic, Video Australia, Rent, Strata, Home ownership, Housing market.