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
Apartment building owners and managers urge plans for dealing with COVID-19
Sue William Domain (No paywall)Apartment buildings have the capacity to be super-spreaders of COVID-19 “like vertical cruise ships”, but the state government has completely ignored the potentially catastrophic dangers, those in the sector claim. With one of Sydney’s biggest apartment towers now in lockdown after a resident tested positive to the highly infectious Delta variant, angry apartment owners and professional managers have accused the authorities of negligence. “We’ve got shared airconditioning systems, shared lifts, shared common areas like lobbies, stairways, lounges, gyms and pools, and yet when someone comes down with COVID, there are no clear guidelines or advice on what to do,” said Karen Stiles, the executive officer of the Owners Corporation Network.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/apartment-building-owners-and-man…
# NSW, Strata, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health.Rising property prices leaving thousands homeless while Government squanders windfall
(No paywall)The NSW Government is the beneficiary of an unexpected additional $1 billion in stamp duty from an out of control housing market but has failed to use this windfall to adequately invest in social housing to ensure people on low incomes across NSW do not end up homeless. While the Government boasts that housing prices in Sydney have surged 20% since the start of the pandemic homelessness services throughout NSW are struggling with increased demand due to rising rents for people on low incomes and low vacancy rates in many areas of NSW.
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, State Government, Tax.Warning that social housing residents set to be hit hardest by end of COVID support
Dominic Brady Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The economic divide between social housing tenants and the rest of the population is likely to increase when the government removes its economic support package, a report has warned.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/warning-that-social-ho…
# International, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19.Housing struggle adds to heartbreaking future for terminally ill brothers
Jodie Hamilton ABC (No paywall)When Robert Lovett and Kiera Howell sold their house in Port Lincoln this month after two and a half years on the market they should have been celebrating. Instead they are asking family and friends for support through a Go Fund Me page to help buy a house in Adelaide.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-24/lovett-family-housing-str…
# Australia, Health, Housing affordability, Housing market, Personal stories.There are solutions to the housing crisis, but none of them are Tory
Polly Toynbee The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... A country addicted to rising prices is pushing home ownership further from the young; but trying to correct it makes things worse. Help-to-buy for first-timers added 10% to prices. Together with the stamp duty holiday, Dorling finds the government is spending £25bn to prop up prices over the next three years. ... There are solutions, but none of them are Tory. Make renting fair and secure; tax property fairly; make developers sell land banks; and let councils build, so housing-benefit rents create assets.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/21/government…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax.The Guardian view on second homes: put main homes first
The Guardian Editorial The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The housing problems faced by renters and would-be first-time buyers long predate the pandemic. The transformation of homes into assets, and of the majority of households into property investors, has been a policy of governments since Margaret Thatcher. But the economic and social upheavals of the past year have brought about a new twist, as people venture further afield to spend the money they have made on the highest-value homes in London and the south-east. Being priced out has long been understood as a generational injustice, as house prices have floated beyond the reach of young adults without inherited wealth. In the shadow of the pandemic, its geographical aspect has grown sharper too.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/21/the-guardi…
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Planning and development.‘Managed retreat’ from climate disasters can reinvent cities so they’re better for everyone – and avoid more flooding, heat and fires
A.R. Siders and Katharine Mach The Conversation (No paywall)June’s record-breaking heat wave left more than 40 million Americans sweltering in temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Some places reached 120 F, and energy grids were struggling to keep people cool. More than half the Western U.S. is now in extreme or exceptional drought, wildfires are already menacing homes, and hurricane season is off to another busy start. This is what climate change looks like, and communities need to be prepared.
https://theconversation.com/managed-retreat-from-climate-disaste…
# International, Climate change, Housing market, Planning and development.The Most Exclusive Waitlist In Town Is For Affordable Housing
(No paywall)The Hunter’s social housing waitlist has over three thousand desperate households waiting to enter the rental market. (Triple M)
https://www.triplem.com.au/story/investment-in-clinical-trials-w…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market, Regional NSW.