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
Mind the gap: Pensioners struggle with higher rents
Rachel Lane The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The rise in rents is squeezing many pensioners, who are already battling cost-of-living pressures fuelled by rising inflation, together with delayed increases in their fortnightly pension payments in the form of rental assistance. Commonwealth Rent Assistance rates are updated on March 20 and September 20 each year in line with increases in the Consumer Price Index. ... It’s time to review Commonwealth Rent Assistance and the rate at which it is indexed to ensure pensioners are not being forced to choose between meeting their cost of living and having somewhere to live.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/mind-the-gap…
# Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Older people.Blocked by ‘inaction’: NSW building commissioner explains reason for resignation
Lucy Cormack The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The state’s building commissioner said he felt no choice but to resign before then-fair trading minister Eleni Petinos was sacked, insisting he could not deliver under a minister who was not invested in legislation. David Chandler, who reversed his resignation last month, said he could not reconcile his job description while feeling blocked by “inaction” in the minister’s office on important reform.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/concerns-about-minister-s-of…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.Residential green spaces protect growing cities against climate change
Michael Drescher, Dawn Parker and Rebecca Rooney The Conversation (No paywall)Canada is a highly urbanized country, with more than 80 per cent of residents living in urban centres. The urban population is growing by more than 400,000 annually, and these new urban residents need housing. With affordable housing in decline, there are loud calls to massively increase the number of homes being built. Unfortunately, conventional residential development destroys large amounts of green space. The average greenness of urban areas across Canada declined five percentage points between 2001 and 2019, and even more in larger cities. The loss of urban green space leads to increases in urban heat and flooding, which are amplified by climate change, and can threaten human health and well-being, and property. They also degrade natural ecosystems and the biodiversity they support. Perversely, poorly planned cities themselves contribute to climate change. As Canadian cities move to tackle the housing shortage, they should take care not to worsen climate change and its impacts.
https://theconversation.com/residential-green-spaces-protect-gro…
# International, Climate change, Housing market, Planning and development.NZ sees ram raids increase, more people living in cars as cost-of-living pressures mount
Emily Clark and Luke Bowden ABC (No paywall)New Zealand has the highest homelessness rate per capita in the OECD and a decades-long housing crisis that puts a secure place to live out of reach for many low-income Kiwis. Homelessness is an issue around the world but, in New Zealand, it is highly political, especially since Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged to tackle the crisis.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-08/new-zealand-ram-raids-hom…
# International, Families, Homelessness, Housing market.Mascot Towers owner left $1.2m in debt
Belinda Palmada (No paywall)An apartment owner of Sydney’s faulty high-rise buildings has told how he is struggling with a tremendous debt and has not yet received assistance from the NSW government. ... A dad’s dream of owning a home has turned into a never-ending nightmare as he struggles with an ever-growing debt. Anthony Najafian, 42, has a combined mortgage of $1.2 million, with about $500,000 of that owing on an uninhabitable, damaged home. The father of three purchased his first home, a one-bedroom apartment in the doomed Mascot Towers building in Sydney’s inner south in 2010. Five years later, he purchased a second property to live in and rented out the Mascot flat. In June 2019, Mr Najafian’s world was rocked when residents including his tenants were suddenly evicted after cracks were discovered in the property. (news.com.au)
https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/investing/mascot-towers-ow…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Sydney home owners fear premium hikes, hit to property values after shock flood rating
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Thousands of eastern Sydney home owners fear higher insurance premiums and lower property values after they were blindsided by a formal notification that their properties are at increased risk of flooding. The backlash to a flood study conducted chiefly by Waverley Council will have implications for councils throughout NSW, who have primary responsibility for managing floodplain development under the state’s flood-prone land policy.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-home-owners-fear-prem…
# NSW, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development.It takes a village: Why 'old-fashioned' neighbourhoods are making a comeback
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)Ask 13-year-old William Hyde what he thinks of his neighbourhood in the southern Sydney suburb of Pagewood, and he doesn’t hesitate. “It’s fantastic!” he says. “Everyone is so friendly, and I play with the other kids in the street and pat all the dogs. “I always feel really safe here and I know the neighbours look out for me and the others. Everyone’s really nice.” To many, it looks like an old-fashioned idyll: a village where everyone knows everyone else, borrows cups of sugar and shares the lawn mowing, and works, shops and plays locally. But today, having endured the isolation and disconnection of COVID-19, we’re increasingly returning to that style of life – working from home, visiting nearby shopping strips, eating in local cafes and restaurants, and getting to know the neighbours.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/it-takes-a-village-why-old-fashio…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home, Work, employment.Sydney renters fall victim to rates rises with one suburb suffering $100 increase in 3 months
Jack Evans news.com.au (No paywall)A new property analysis claims Sydney basin landlords are passing on interest rate rises to their tenants, with rents surging between $20 and $100 per week over the last three months. As the nation braces for another imminent interest rates rise today, rents in Sydney’s south west suburbs climbed 9.3 per cent over the last quarter. The analysis of SQM rent and rental vacancy rates by national housing affordability campaigners Everybody’s Home calculated the weekly rent increases, yielding worrying results. While south western Sydney bore the brunt of rent rises among the greater Sydney’s affordable housing stocks, more affluent suburbs also recorded massive increases. Sydney’s Lower North Shore saw a 14.7 per cent quarterly rise, or $107 per week. ... Kate Colvin from Everybody’s Home said renters – typically on low and modest incomes – were bearing the cost of the “national inflation challenge”.
“This is both unfair and unwise. We need to urgently expand social and affordable housing,” she said.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/sydney-renters-fall-…
# NSW, Rent, Sydney.