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
The rise in rough sleeping and the refugee crisis underline the need for investment in new social housing
David Bogle Inside Housing (Paywall)What is the sense, David Bogle asks, in spending huge amounts of taxpayers’ money apparently indefinitely on disused airports, expensive hotel rooms and poor temporary private sector housing when the money could be invested in building and acquiring permanent, secure and well-managed social housing?
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/comment/the-rise-in-roug…
# International, Public and community housing, Homelessness.Interest rates have gone up again, pushing some Australian mortgage borrowers beyond their 'stress test' limits
David Taylor ABC (No paywall)When the Reserve Bank raised the cash rate to 2.85 per cent this month, it pushed some mortgage borrowers to their "stress test" limits. What does this mean?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-02/mortgage-borrowers-pushed…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.Why the inflation that is causing rate rises matters for Aussie renters
Emily Power Domain (No paywall)Although mortgage holders are feeling lashed, tenants are also suffering the consequences of growing inflation, which sits at its highest point in 30 years and is expected to increase before the year's end, a Finder industry survey revealed. ... Tenants' Union of NSW CEO Leo Patterson Ross said it was crucial that housing was seen as an essential service. He said it was not the union's view that interest rate rises - and subsequent mortgage costs - are to blame for expensive rents, because of incentives including negative gearing, and historic patterns of high rental charges when interest rates have fallen. He said supply and demand is the nub of the issue.
https://www.nine.com.au/property/news/why-the-inflation-that-is-…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Housing market.First home buyer Brianna Lewis moved state, stopped her studies, all so she could buy a house
Adam Holmes ABC (No paywall)Just to get into the housing market in a regional Australian city, 30-year-old Brianna Lewis faced a series of life-changing decisions. First, she moved away from her hometown of Newcastle to take on a job at an architectural firm in Launceston in northern Tasmania. "I had basically given up on the idea of ever owning a home in Newcastle. I'm a single woman on a part-time wage and still studying, so I realised it wasn't going to happen in the next 10 years," Ms Lewis said. After working in Launceston for 12 months, she became eligible for the Tasmanian government's MyHome 30-year shared equity program, providing 30 per cent of the purchase price and a stake in any property price increase. She was desperate to get her foot in the door, but even with this program, it was almost impossible.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-02/interest-rates-reducing-b…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Women, Work, employment.Queensland lost 20,000 rentals. It’s still unclear where many went
Matt Dennien The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)“Cannot be explained by available data.” This was the early answer to why about 20,000 rental homes that should have been available across Queensland were not.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/queensland/queensland-lost-20-00…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.The Roundtable: Innovations in social housing
Julian Morrow ABC (No paywall)In Australia housing demand is outstripping supply. Many people we rely on are finding housing ownership unachievable, and their pay barely covers the rent. Homelessness is increasing and the waiting list in some regions for social housing is 10 years. In its first Labor budget in 9 years, Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced what he describes as a 'big and bold' aspiration to address the crisis. We look at the plans and explore housing strategies and models both here and overseas. (ABC Radio National)
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-roundtable/the…
# Audio Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market.Defence housing plan in Sydney’s eastern suburbs sparks contamination fears
Megan Gorrey and Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Alarmed residents in Sydney’s east are pushing the Department of Defence to abandon plans to construct more than 1000 homes on contaminated land at Randwick Barracks – which locals say has been described as “Cancer Hill”. The department wants to build 62 houses for families along Bundock Street from 2023, followed a year later by 991 one-bedroom units for personnel on the eastern side of the sprawling army base.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/defence-housing-plan-in-sydn…
# NSW, Asbestos, lead, hazardous materials, Federal Government, Housing market.The biggest cost-of-living increase this year — rising interest rates — is set to rise again
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)Many Australians who are struggling with soaring inflation are about to face another increase in the fastest-rising cost of living: interest rates. ... The financial markets are pricing in a slightly greater than 20 per cent chance that the RBA will revert back to a 0.5-percentage-point rate rise, having eased off to 0.25 of a percentage point in October. ... As a rough rule of thumb, for every $100,000 of debt, each 0.25 percentage point rate rise adds a bit less than $15 a month onto repayments. That's an extra $1,030 a month on a $750,000 loan.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-01/the-biggest-cost-of-livin…
# Australia, Home ownership.