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
Axing negative gearing won’t cause a rental crisis. Here’s the maths
Saul Eslake The Guardian (No paywall)One of the great urban myths of Australian political history is that “rents went through the roof” after then treasurer Paul Keating abolished negative gearing for property investors in July 1985 and as a result was “forced” to reintroduce it in September 1987. In fact, this is an illustration of the saying that if a lie is big enough and you tell it often enough, it becomes accepted as the truth. The truth of this episode is that rents did rise at double-digit rates in Sydney and Perth during this period – but that was because vacancy rates had fallen to barely above 1% in Sydney, and to about 2% in Perth, by the first quarter of 1986.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/21/australia-…
# Must read Australia, Rent.https://nit.com.au/24-09-2024/13875/remote-housing-neglect-test-case-to-begin-in-wa
Giovanni Torre National Indigenous Times (No paywall)An important test case will begin at the Magistrates Court in Tom Price on Tuesday morning, with Ms Jacobs, a First Nations public housing tenant in the remote Pilbara town of Wakathuni, taking on the WA Housing Authority over alleged failure to address poor housing conditions and illegal rent increases. The case is a Western Australian first, and like the recent Northern Territory remote housing case, could have implications across the country. Ms Jacobs is taking the Housing Authority, her state landlord, to court over its alleged ongoing failures to repair her home, leaving her to live in unsafe conditions which fall short of local health law standards.
https://nit.com.au/24-09-2024/13875/remote-housing-neglect-test-…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Repairs, Utilities electricity water gas.The severity of Australia’s housing affordability crisis is obvious - this is how politicians could fix it
Nicki Hutley The Guardian (No paywall)The problems in housing affordability have been building for decades, the clear result of policy failures across all levels of government that have now brought us to what can reasonably be described as a crisis point. The severity of the problem is obvious. For example, the Demographia Group, which reports annually on house prices in eight advanced economies, found that house prices in Australia’s five largest cities have risen from about three times average income in 1987, to seven times just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, to 10 times in 2024.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/sep/19/australia-…
# Must read Australia, Rent.Landlords could lose negative gearing perks unless they cap rents in new plan
Jim Malo The Age (No paywall)Landlord access to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions would be tied to the condition of their properties and five-year lease agreements under a new proposal to reform the controversial tax measures. The changes proposed in an RMIT policy discussion paper were aimed at improving living conditions for tenants while also improving the value for money the federal government gets for the more than $10 billion it spends on tax concessions and Commonwealth Rent Assistance.
https://www.theage.com.au/property/news/landlords-could-lose-neg…
# Hot topic Australia, .Explained: The government's stalled housing agenda, and why the Greens are opposing it
Ewa Staszewska SBS (No paywall)Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has urged the Greens to support Labor's proposed housing legislation as two key elements face the Senate. The next steps of the federal government's housing agenda — the Help to Buy and Build to Rent bills — are both up for debate this week. After teaming up with the Coalition to block the latter bill in June, the Greens have continued to clash with the federal government on what the best solution for both renters and prospective homeowners would be.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/explained-the-governments-st…
# Must read Australia, Rent.Why has Australia fallen so short on housing targets – and how can it get out of the crisis?
Peter Hannam The Guardian (No paywall)It has been clear for some time that Australia is unlikely to come close to meeting the Albanese government’s goal of 1.2m new homes over the five years from last July. The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, set up late in 2023, expects “just under 1m homes” over that period – an estimate in line with bodies such as the Housing Industry Association. Approvals barely topped 160,000 last financial year, or just two-thirds of the government’s desired annual target.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/sep/22/why-has-austral…
# Hot topic Australia, .Why News Corp’s realestate.com.au can put fees ‘up and up and up’, according to ex-CEO
Sarah Martin The Guardian (No paywall)A former chief executive of the News Corp-controlled realestate.com.au says the company views real estate agents as its “outsourced sales force”, outlining how home sellers have been targeted with ever-rising advertising costs. Simon Baker, who was chief executive of REA Group from 2001 to 2008 and now works as a consultant in the property tech industry, says the “vendor-paid” advertising market operating in Australian real estate is rare globally.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/sep/23/simon-bak…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Starting a tenancy.Aussies are being left with $8 after paying rent
Emily Power Domain (No paywall)Vulnerable Australians are left with $8 to their name after paying rent, new data shows. Low-income earners, people on the pension and those receiving disability support payments are struggling to afford housing, with rental prices in almost every suburb in the nation outside their means. The Priced Out 2024 by housing rights campaign group Everybody’s Home found that Aussies receiving the age pension and disability support pension would have $8 remaining after paying the rent.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/aussies-are-being-left-with-8-aft…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.