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
I live in an affluent area, but I have a secret I can’t tell my neighbours: I don’t know how I’ll survive this winter
Marin The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Rishi Sunak is super rich – how can he relate to anyone who can’t afford fruit for their kids, £9.35 for a presciption, or a tank of petrol to get to work? I have lived alone in a small rented house for more than six years. I am in my 60s. Winter is not as harsh here in the south-west but a sea fog roils along the coast that clings to your face and heads straight for your lungs.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/04/affluent-v…
# International, Rent, Older people, Personal stories, Women.New Zealand the ‘kiwi in the coalmine’ as house prices slump and repayments rise
Eva Corbett The Guardian (No paywall)Sharply rising interest rates could put huge financial pressure on New Zealand homeowners who bought at the peak of the country’s overheated housing market, economists have warned. Experts say New Zealand has become the “kiwi in the coalmine” for the world’s property markets, as rising interest rates and falling house prices put some borrowers at risk of negative equity, where they owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/05/new-zealand-the-ki…
# International, Home ownership, Housing market.Remote Indigenous community pioneers 3D-printed homes set to change rural lives
Maddie Thomas The Guardian (No paywall)An Indigenous community in Alice Springs is hoping to lead the way towards a 3D-printed home revolution in rural, regional and remote Australia. After becoming the first town camp in the Northern Territory to be granted freehold title of their land by the Northern Territory government this year, Central Arrernte traditional owners of Mparntwe (Alice Springs) plan to collaborate with Melbourne-based company Luyten to 3D-print five homes at the Indigenous community of Ilpeye Ilpeye.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/03/remote-in…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Housing market.A brief history of the mortgage, from its roots in ancient Rome to the English ‘dead pledge’ and its rebirth in America
Michael J Highfield The Conversation (No paywall)Historians trace the origins of mortgage contracts to the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, who ruled modern-day Iran in the fifth century B.C. The Roman Empire formalized and documented the legal process of pledging collateral for a loan.
https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-the-mortgage-from…
# History International, Housing market.Negative gearing and capital gains tax discount set to cost the budget $20 billion a year within a decade
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)The cost of negative gearing is set to blow out as interest rates rise and, with it, the capital gains tax discount is expected to cost the federal budget more than $20 billion a year within a decade. Modelling by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) — commissioned by Greens leader Adam Bandt — estimated that negative gearing would drain $12.7 billion from budget revenue in 2023-33 at the current cash rate of 2.85 per cent. Should the cash rate rise to 3.35 per cent — fairly close to the Reserve Bank of Australia's estimate of what might be a longer-term "neutral" cash rate — that cost would blow out further, to $13.8 billion.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-03/negative-gearing-and-capi…
# Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing market, Tax.‘Wake-up call for real estate agencies’: Harcourts hit by data breach
Tawar Razaghi and Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Real estate company Harcourts has confirmed a data breach occurred at its Melbourne City office, potentially exposing the personal information of tenants, landlords and trades to hackers. The franchisee became aware on October 24 that its rental property database was accessed by an unknown third party without authorisation. For tenants, the personal information potentially breached included names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, signatures and photo identification, according to an email sent by the office to its customers and circulated online. For landlords and trades, the data comprised bank details as well as names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and signatures. It comes two weeks after security experts and tenancy advocates raised concerns about the potential for data breaches in the industry, which collects copious amounts of information with little oversight. ... Digital Rights Watch program lead Samantha Floreani said a review into the Privacy Act was urgently needed to better protect people’s data. “This is yet another example of why we need comprehensive privacy reform, because as long as companies are collecting too much of our personal information and holding on to it for long periods of time, the risk of harm is going to continue to occur,” Floreani said. Also, read Judd Boaz's article entitled: 'Harcourts Melbourne City real estate agency advises customers of data breach' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-02/harcourts-melbourne-real-estate-agent-stafflink-data-breach/101608270].
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/wake-up-call-for-real-estat…
# Australia, Privacy and access, Rent, Landlords and agents.The UK Housing Review: five charts that illustrate the state of the nation
Jules Birch Inside Housing (Paywall)The UK Housing Review provides a trove of data about trends in the country’s housing policy. Jules Birch picks through the detail. He covers 'Shifting rules on rents', 'Counting first-time buyers', 'Letting hotels take the strain', 'Failing on decarbonisation' and 'Leveling up decent homes'.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/the-uk-housing-review-fi…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Utilities water energy internet, Climate change, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Can New York solve its housing crisis?
Anne McElvoy (No paywall)Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, grew up on the verge of homelessness. Now he’s in charge of fixing the city’s housing crisis. Host Anne McElvoy asks him how he plans to do it. They discuss how an influx of 20,000 migrants, many from the southern border, adds to the problem. Mr Adams, a former police captain, defends his record tackling violence and relays his concerns about the Democrats’ pitch ahead of the midterms. (The Economist)
https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2022/11/03/can-new-york-solve…
# Video International, Homelessness, Housing market, Local Government.