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
Not ‘if’, but ‘when’: city planners need to design for flooding. These examples show the way
Elizabeth Mossop The Conversation (No paywall)As the current New South Wales flooding highlights, it’s not enough to continue to build cities and towns based on business-as-usual planning principles — especially as these disasters tend to disproportionately affect disadvantaged populations, increasing inequality in Australia. We need to design our urban spaces around the idea that flooding is inevitable. That means not building on flood plains, and thinking creatively about what can be done to create urban “sinks” to hold water when floods strike.
https://theconversation.com/not-if-but-when-city-planners-need-t…
# Australia, Planning and development.Australian public policy is inflating home prices, as usual: Some things never change.
Tim Williams The Fifth Estate (No paywall)And, despite rhetoric and some incentives from all governments about incentivising home ownership, the reality is very different. On current trends, the majority of Australians aged 25-39 will be renters, not owners, within 20 years, possibly sooner.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/australian-public…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Home ownership.Homelessness services fear turning people away if wage funding isn’t renewed
Nick Bonyhady The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Homelessness services fear they will be forced to cut the hours they can take in people, including women fleeing domestic violence at night, if federal pay equality funding is not renewed.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/homelessness-services-fe…
# Australia, Federal Government, Homelessness, State Government.What now? NSW Rental Eviction Moratorium ends
Marlene Even (No paywall)Many housing and community groups are concerned that the end of the NSW Government’s COVID-19 rental eviction moratorium will have dire impacts on low-income renters. This Friday (March 26) the NSW Government’s moratorium is coming to an end which coincides with the end of the JobKeeper scheme and JobSeeker coronavirus supplement. (2ser)
https://2ser.com/what-now-nsw-rental-eviction-moratorium-ends/
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media, Video NSW, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.Speculators in Crosshairs of NZ Housing Reforms
Dinah Lewis Boucher (No paywall)New Zealand will increase housing supply and remove incentives for speculators as it attempts to rein in the nation's runaway house prices and prevent a housing bubble. (The Urban Developer)
https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/new-zealand-spends-billio…
# Hot topic International, Federal Government, Housing market, Landlords and agents.What Australia can learn from New Zealand’s efforts to combat a runaway housing market
Matt Johnson The New Daily (No paywall)Housing analysts say a decision by our friends across the ditch to phase out negative gearing and other investor tax concessions could be a sign of things to come in Australia.
The Ardern government on Tuesday announced new measures to curtail an investor-led housing bubble, driven by nosediving interest rates, that has seen prices surge nearly 22 per cent in just one year.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/03/24/australia…
# Hot topic International, Federal Government, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.NSW floods: free land titling support for property owners affected by flooding
(No paywall)Property searches and plans can assist landholders with insurance claims and development applications to council, as well as provide peace of mind regarding land ownership in the aftermath of natural disasters. Adam Bennett, NSW Land Registry Services CEO, said having fast and free access to land titles could help bring peace of mind to affected property owners when the clean-up starts. (Land Registry Services)
# NSW, .Micro-town gives people with cognitive impairment, dementia independence and social engagement
Edwina Seselja and Trina McLellan ABC (No paywall)
A small community in Bellmere, just north of Brisbane, is turning the traditional aged care model on its head, providing a sense of independence, engagement and normalcy to its 120 residents, many of whom live with cognitive impairment such as dementia.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-20/the-micro-town-helping-pe…
# Australia, Disability, Home, Older people.