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
A Quietly Big Idea on How We Think About Homeless People
The New York Times (Paywall)Should housing status be a protected category like race, gender or religion?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/01/opinion/california-homeless-c…
# International, Homelessness.Australian banks lift fixed interest home loan rates despite RBA keeping official rate at record low
Ben Butler The Guardian (No paywall)The big banks have begun jacking up fixed interest home loan rates even though the Reserve Bank of Australia has not increased official rates in a decade and on Friday signalled it was unlikely to do so until 2024. Even with official rates frozen at record lows, banks say wholesale funding costs are increasing, in part because of the RBA’s decision earlier this year to stop lending them money at concessional rates. Interest rates could start to creep up in 2023, a year earlier than previously expected, the RBA said.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/05/australia…
# Australia, Housing market.Mid-range home-buyers paying a growing share of stamp duty
Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Those purchasing properties in the $1 million to $3 million range have paid a growing share of stamp duty revenue in NSW during the past three years while the proportion collected on more expensive property sales has been declining.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/mid-range-home-buyers-paying…
# NSW, Housing market, Tax.RBA says we are in a W-shaped recovery, with housing one of the few concerns
John Hawkins The Conversation (No paywall)The Reserve Bank has used Friday’s quarterly assessment of the economy to declare that lockdowns have “delayed but not derailed” Australia’s recovery.
https://theconversation.com/rba-says-we-are-in-a-w-shaped-recove…
# Australia, Housing market.Big Melbourne is coming back, but do we still want it?
Noel Towell and Cara Waters The Age (Paywall)But then the virus came. Melbourne suddenly went from one of the fastest-growing cities in the developed world, on track to overtake Sydney as Australia’s biggest metropolitan centre within a few years, to one with a shrinking population. Overseas migration halted overnight as borders slammed shut, temporary residents went home and other Melburnians fled interstate or to the regions to escape the city’s lockdowns. Now Australia’s international borders are slowly opening up and experts say the scene is set for a return to the rapid population growth that drove the state’s economy to record heights in the seven years prior to the pandemic, with migrants attracted to the city by the same thing that brought them here between 2013 and 2019 in their hundreds of thousands: jobs.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/big-melbourne-is-com…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Planning and development, Work, employment.The plan to unlock more swimming spots, playgrounds across Sydney
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Planning and Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes says the government wants to see more natural swimming spots established along Sydney Harbour rather than elaborate man-made pools.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-plan-to-unlock-more-swim…
# NSW, Local Government, Planning and development.CBA targets the young with ‘monumental’ move into cryptocurrencies
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Commonwealth Bank has played down lingering concerns about the risks associated with digital currencies to the local money laundering compliance regime, as it increases its appeal to younger Australians by allowing customers to trade cryptocurrencies. ... Jefferies analyst Brian Johnson said the crypto foray was a smart move by CBA as it looks to win young customers who will one day take out mortgages and other lucrative products.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/cba-makes-la…
# Australia, Housing market, Young people.Canberra property price rises push houses out of reach of first-home buyers, despite government loan guarantee
Tahlia Roy and Markus Mannheim ABC (No paywall)Would-be first-home buyer Steph Phillips says the search for an affordable house in Canberra's supercharged market has almost defeated her. ... Canberra property prices are rising faster than those in most Australian cities. Data firm CoreLogic says the value of the median ACT dwelling shot up 22.5 per cent in the year to September. Canberra's house and unit prices are now second only to Sydney's. This boom is also pushing a federal government scheme to help first-time buyers into redundancy — at least for those seeking houses.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-06/canberra-houses-out-of-ea…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.