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
New housing supply, population growth and access to social infrastructure
Somwrita Sarkar, Emily Moylan, Hao Wu, Rashi Shrivastava, Nicole Gurran, David Levinson, AHURI (No paywall)This research tests the usefulness of new datasets to inform the forward planning of social and community infrastructure in rapidly growing areas of Australian cities. It focusses on greenfield areas of Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth to demonstrate data sources and methods that can be replicated in other locations.
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/356?utm_source=Z…
# Research alert Australia, Planning and development.Has COVID induced property vacancies swung the balances of power in the inner-city property market?
Daniel Lo Surdo (No paywall)Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the inner-city property market could generally be understood in three words: fierce, competitive, and lucrative. ... [But now] it looks that a change may be appearing on the horizon. ... a shortage of tenants hasn’t worried everyone in the inner-city property market. The overwhelming tide away from the city fringes has left those still in the inner-city with largely unprecedented levels of purchasing power and leverage, whereby landlords typically desperate for property occupancy have been forced to negotiate better conditions and cheaper rents with prospective tenants. It’s a pattern that has been welcomed by CEO of the Tenants’ Union of NSW Leo Patterson Ross. ... Despite the growth in property vacancies and plunge in rental prices in the inner-city, Patterson Ross remains sceptical when discussing the true extent of power that tenants have been afforded throughout the past 12 months. “My test for a tenant’s market is one where the landlords are competing for the tenants to move in – they’re offering things like longer leases, pets by default, being really proactive about their maintenance, and we really didn’t see that, what we saw was the prices going down, but the real experience of renting in Sydney even in the middle of the CBD really didn’t change very much,” Patterson Ross said. “People were being offered basically the same deal, just a little bit less expensive.” (Inner West Independent)
https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2021/06/has-covid-induced-property-…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Indigenous eviction prevention program's last-ditch bid to survive
Claire Moodie ABC (No paywall)Patricia Williams watches as a team of workers marches into her public housing home in Perth's northern suburbs, removing piles of hard rubbish and cleaning mould and dirt from the walls and floors. The 60-year-old grandmother has put up the white flag, calling for support to help her deal with the mess and unpaid bills that have been threatening to have her evicted from her home of 11 years.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-13/wa-indigenous-eviction-pr…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Eviction, Public and community housing, Families, Health, Homelessness.Australians think our population is getting too big but can we build better dense cities?
Roje Augustin and Emma Nobel ABC (No paywall)Australia is one of the least densely populated nations in the world and yet, according to the Australia Talks National Survey 2021, 35 per cent of Australians say the population is getting too big for the country to handle. Those living outside inner-metro areas, including regional and rural residents, are most likely to agree. Some of their concerns about a booming population, particularly in cities, centre on the environmental impact of population density. But that's the wrong way to look at it, according to Tim Soutphommasane, sociology and political theory professor at the University of Sydney. "Some of the greenest cities in the world are much denser than what our cities at the moment are," he tells ABC RN's Life Matters.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-11/cities-population-density…
# Australia, Planning and development.Medical, post grad international students the first to return to NSW
Alexandra Smith The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)International students studying medicine and health-related degrees and those close to finishing their studies will be given priority to return to NSW universities under a long-awaited rescue plan. Universities will foot the bill for international students to return within weeks, with 250 students to arrive each fortnight on charter flights before quarantining in special accommodation. ... Students from a range of countries, predominately China but also others including Singapore and South Korea, will quarantine in purpose-built student accommodation once they arrive in Sydney.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/medical-post-grad-internatio…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Students.Buyer beware amid warnings that interest rates will rise
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Buyers who have driven home prices to record highs across the country have been warned an interest rate rise may come sooner than expected as the economy continues to bounce back from the coronavirus recession.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/buyer-beware-amid-warnin…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.A leaky share house is a world away from where I thought I’d be in my 30s
Deirdre Fidge The Guardian (No paywall)Like many old houses, mine often feels flimsy, ready to crumble at any moment. Previous attempts at hole-patching from tenants gone by are found throughout as large bulging clouds, optimistic layer upon optimistic layer. The house slopes so profoundly we use multiple door stoppers to prop up my furniture. I tip-toe around the kitchen as one of the wobbly beams cracks so loudly I fear that one confident stride will plunge me deep underground, where I’ll be forced to live as a mole person. And I hate worms!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/11/a-leaky-sh…
# Australia, Rent, Share houses.Why I turned down an MBE for services to homeless people
Gill Taylor The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... I’ve worked in homelessness services for almost 18 years – in hostels, youth services, women’s projects and for local government and charities. I’ve celebrated jubilantly each time someone has secured stable housing, and I weep every time someone loses their life on the streets. I have never once stopped caring intensely about what I do, never stopped wanting to learn and do a better job, and never once stopped believing that people affected by homelessness deserve infinitely better than what I have been able to offer them. ... The truth is, my job shouldn’t exist. Despite working 50-plus hours a week every week for nearly two decades, my efforts – and those of thousands of other dedicated practitioners and volunteers – have had almost no tangible positive effect on homelessness in this country. In the world I want to live in, housing is a right not a privilege.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/09/mbe-servic…
# International, Homelessness.