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
Unit and house price gulf widens in two-speed Melbourne property market
Jennifer Duke and Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The price gulf between detached houses and units in Melbourne has widened sharply after the median price of a standalone residence in the city surged by $3600 a week during the last three months of 2020. Melbourne’s median house price reached a record $936,000 in the December quarter and is now 64 per cent higher than the median unit price, the Domain house price report shows. That compares with an average price gap of 52 per cent over the past decade. This gap is expected to deepen.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/unit-and-house-price-gul…
# Australia, Housing market.Solving the Housing Crisis: A Political Choice
(No paywall)Here, Dr Rory Hearne of the Maynooth University Department of Applied Social Studies, talks about the Irish housing crisis, its origins and solutions. The title of the interview is Reclaiming, reimagining and rebuilding a vision for public housing for all. In it Rory explains the origins of the housing crisis in a series of factors including the shift to a market model of housing provision, the neoliberal Thatcherite move away from public housing and the financialisation of housing as global investors turn homes into wealth accumulating assets and worsen affordability and access for those in housing need. He details the experience of Ireland in comparison with other countries such as the UK and Austria.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/72TkA81Y63i4UCeVALZFrG?si=1RIXp…
# Audio International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market.How Democrats Can Fix the Affordable Housing Crisis
Josh Cohen (No paywall)From the United States ... Biden has signaled that he understands the scale of the country’s housing crisis and commensurately vast response necessary to address it. In the hours following the inauguration ceremony, Biden signed an executive order extending the CDC’s national eviction moratorium, which had been set to expire on Jan. 31, through the end of March and called on Congress to further extend it to the end of September. He also asked Congress to take on a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 emergency relief package that includes $30 billion for rental and utility assistance and $5 billion to stabilize people at risk of homelessness and to fund rapid rehousing efforts.
https://shelterforce.org/2021/01/22/how-democrats-should-fix-the…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Editorial: Californis's plan to 'cancel rent' could miss too many low-income tenants
(Paywall)From the United States ... Allowing landlords to opt out of rent relief means some tenants won't get the full benefit of the federal aid program.
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-01-28/rent-relief-ten…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Slash interest rate bill on reverse mortgages for retirees: Seniors lobby group
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A lobby group representing more than 130,000 older Australians wants an overhaul of the federal government’s reverse mortgage scheme for retirees, warning the interest bill is too high and out of step with the record low official cash rate.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/slash-interest-rate-bill…
# Australia, Home ownership, Older people.‘Shocking’: dodgy plumbing jobs rife at new home building sites
Zach Hope The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)An inspection blitz by Victoria’s building regulator has uncovered a “shocking” level of shoddy workmanship and corner cutting in plumbing jobs at new home construction sites, with unwitting property owners forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars for repairs.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/shocking-dodgy-plumbing…
# Australia, Housing market.Don't make us move in a pandemic, plead tenants in 'dire' council housing
Harriet Grant The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Families living in temporary accommodation in a dilapidated former care home in south London – some for several years – are fighting moves to rehouse them miles away to make way for a new development which doesn’t yet have planning permission. Despite government guidelines urging social landlords not to put pressure on residents to move during lockdown, the families say they have been under constant stress since last summer when they discovered that plans had been drawn up for the new development.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/31/dont-make-us-mov…
# International, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Human rights.Forget the tree change: Why cities are more important than ever
Tawar Razaghi Domain (Paywall)Since the pandemic hit, tree changes have been in the spotlight, but cities will be key for innovation and social tolerance in a post-COVID-19 world, experts say.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/forget-the-tree-change-why-cities…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Planning and development.