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
How will our stretched housing market cope with surging immigration?
Abul Rizvi Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)Respected ABC commentator Alan Kohler has recently raised this issue in an article provocatively titled Labor’s immigration and housing policies are an explosive combination. Kohler says “there is now a massive discrepancy between the demand for labour, the immigration needed to fill it, and the available housing”, pointing to the 2.2 million visas granted since June 2022 and the national rental vacancy of 51,437 and 37,626 in the capital cities.
https://johnmenadue.com/how-will-our-stretched-housing-market-co…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.Rising cost of aged care and big wage unknown put squeeze on government
Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A pre-election promise to boost aged care spending by $2.5 billion is just the tip of a growing fiscal iceberg confronting the federal government as it grapples with increasing pressures on the nation’s finances while improving the quality of services for Australia’s elderly. Aged care reform was one of Labor’s key election pledges. It said it would outlay the extra $2.5 billion to fix the sector over the next four financial years, its second most expensive promise after childcare.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rising-cost-of-aged-care…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people.I’m turning 30 in a shabby share house in Fitzroy. And I’m fine with that
Tim McGlone The Guardian (No paywall)My dad turned 30 in 1990, by which time he’d found my mum, accrued a kid, a dog and a house with a large back yard for the dog and kid to run around in. A life, in other words. That was 30 back then. This month I turn 30, when I’ll celebrate with about 20 mates, a lot of beers and an Oasis cover band I’m hiring to play at the expensive, rundown share house in Fitzroy I rent, which has hardly any back yard. This is also 30.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/17/im-turning…
# Australia, Share houses.Government given warning that raising Section 106 threshold could ‘devastate’ affordable housing supply
Tim Clark Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... PlaceShapers, which represents more than 100 housing associations across the country, is concerned that the government is considering increasing the threshold for exempting developments from contributing to affordable homes under Section 106 contributions from 10 to 50 homes. Small sites are considered essential to providing affordable homes, and Placeshapers said it has anecdotal evidence of developers already withdrawing submitted plans and resubmitting them as smaller schemes to avoid paying Section 106 contributions.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/government-warned-that…
# International, Affordable housing, Landlords and agents.Perth rental crisis: Families’ heartbreaking pleas as they face possibility of being homeless
(Paywall)FIFO workers are among Perth’s new army of homeless. Katherine Houareau, who works as a truck driver at a mine site in Leinster, is scrambling to find a new rental home for herself and her two kids. (The West Australian)
https://thewest.com.au/features/the-sunday-times-long-reads/pert…
# Australia, Rent, Homelessness.Calls for Queensland to end 25-year locked-in property management contracts amid rising body corporate costs
Audrey Courty ABC (No paywall)Rising tensions between Queensland homeowners and property managers over locked-in management rights contracts lasting up to 25 years will be raised at the state government's housing summit today amid concerns of rising body corporate fees.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-20/qld-housing-summit-body-c…
# Australia, Strata, Landlords and agents.Barangaroo: From the Hungry Mile to Australia’s most expensive neighbourhood
Lucy Macken Domain (No paywall)Long before Barangaroo drew the designer eye of some of the world’s top architects and the glittering towers they built lured the uber-rich from around the world, the foreshore was better known for the Hungry Mile, a barren roadway named after the queues of workers who sought work on the docklands during the Great Depression. There were few residents, but in neighbouring Millers Point there were an estimated 300 public housing properties to house Sydney’s neediest citizenry. Not any more. A selloff of public housing by the state government means that generations of working-class locals no longer live in the historic sandstone terraces. But the money being splashed around in Millers Point – $5 million for a rundown terrace, up to $10 million for a double-fronted one with views – is a fraction of that at Barangaroo. There, Crown’s distinctive One Barangaroo tower – designed by international architectural firm WilkinsonEyre – dominates the skyline, and Lendlease’s trio of towers, designed by acclaimed architect Renzo Piano and known collectively as One Sydney Harbour, is fast taking shape. The tallest of Lendlease’s buildings, known as Residences One, is not due for completion until early next year, but it already claims Australia’s most expensive residential sale of $140 million. [Read on] Also, read Michael Koziol's article entitled: 'Old enemies cop it sweet in Keating and Perrottet’s architecture double act' in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/old-enemies-cop-it-sweet-in-perrottet-and-keating-s-architecture-double-act-20221020-p5brdi.html]. Read Margot Saville's opinion piece entitled: 'Barangaroo stole our skyline and belittled the Opera House' in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/barangaroo-stole-our-skyline-and-belittled-the-opera-house-20221018-p5bqs7.html] You will find a link to 15 stories under the heading: 'The verdict on Barangaroo' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/barangaroo-ten-years-on-20221013-p5bpfy.html].
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/barangaroo-from-the-hungry-…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Heritage listings, Housing market, Planning and development, Sydney.Keating gives Perrottet’s stamp duty reform thumbs up
Lucy Cormack and Alexandra Smith The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Premier Dominic Perrottet’s political mentor Paul Keating says stamp duty should be replaced with a property tax to make it easier for people to move homes despite NSW Labor’s refusal to back an overhaul of the tax scheme. The former Labor prime minister said the state government’s policy to give first home buyers the option of paying an annual tax instead of stamp duty was a positive step to help young people attain homeownership.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/keating-gives-perrottet-s-st…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing affordability, State Government, Tax.