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
Canberra's house values are falling across every suburb, but prices in the capital are still high
Isaac Nowroozi ABC (No paywall)Houses in the capital are no longer flying off the shelves as rising interest rates cause a downturn in prices.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-19/act-house-values-fall-acr…
# Australia, Housing market.The hotel-inspired apartments that challenge ‘the great Australian dream’
Sophie Aubrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Nathan Rhodes has had his share of shoddy apartments: shoebox units in cheaply made buildings with dated decor. But for the past few years, the 32-year-old finance professional has reaped the benefits of a growing shift in Australian high-rise living: hotel-inspired apartment developments. ... Experts believe these types of high-end developments, with services that mimic five-star hotels and borrow concepts from international cities where apartment living rules, will convince once-reluctant Australians to give vertical homes a go.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/the-hotel-inspired-apar…
# Australia, Housing market.‘So much debt’: Property values sink in four out of five suburbs
Elizbeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Property values are falling in four out of five suburbs across the capital cities, new figures show, as the housing downturn becomes deeper and more widespread. Values fell in 2405 house and unit markets over the three months to September, CoreLogic figures show, or 79.5 per cent of markets analysed. It’s a jump from 1293 in the three months to June.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/so-much-debt-property-value…
# Australia, Housing market.Healthy Homes for Renters at NSW Parliament
Jemima Mowbray Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Yesterday the Tenants' Union of NSW alongside Better Renting and Sweltering Cities provided a briefing on Healthy Homes for Renters to a diverse, cross section of Members of the NSW Parliament. The briefing focused on the need for energy efficiency standards in rental homes and renters’ current experience of unhealthy homes in NSW.
https://www.tenants.org.au/news/healthy-homes-renters-nsw-parlia…
# NSW, Rent, Utilities water energy internet, Health, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, No-grounds evictions, State Government.The market has failed to give Australians affordable housing, so don’t expect it to solve the crisis
Hal Pawson, Bill Randolph, Chris Leishman, Nicole Gurran, Peter Mares, Peter Phibbs and Vivienne Milligan The Conversation (No paywall)The federal Labor government has promised to craft a national housing and homelessness plan and to fund new social housing, returning Canberra to a field it all but abandoned for a decade. A new Productivity Commission report is scathing about current arrangements and calls for far-reaching change. Yet some of the report’s key recommendations rest on faulty assumptions and outdated economic thinking. It relies on a misplaced belief that the market will respond to low-income households’ need for affordable housing. Its faith in deregulation as a cure-all is misguided. The experience of recent decades and a wealth of research evidence instead point to the need to increase government investment in public and community housing.
https://theconversation.com/the-market-has-failed-to-give-austra…
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, Planning and development.Residential Tenancies Amendment (Prohibiting No Grounds Evictions) Bill 2022
(No paywall)Jenny Leong introduces bill to end unfair no grounds evictions in New South Wales. For progress on the Bill, check at: https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/bills/Pages/bill-details.aspx?pk=4011 To put this in context, read Riley Krause's article entitled: 'Rent in Orange on the rise as wellas no grounds evictions' in 'Central Western Daily' at: [https://www.centralwesterndaily.com.au/story/7942077/orange-residents-are-skipping-meals-to-cope-with-citys-rising-rent-costs/] Here, Verto's CEO, Mr Ron Maxwell, says they have seen a "significant increase" in enquiries related to no grounds evictions in the past three years. ... On top of this, Mr Maxwell said increases in rent was "pricing out" a lot of their clients. "Verto is seeing clients that are skipping meals, missing out on their previous activities, and getting behind in their other financial obligations just to pay rent'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW54-xIa8gQ&ab_channel=JennyLeong
# NSW, Eviction, Rent, No-grounds evictions, State Government.October 2022 News
Shelter NSW (No paywall)In this month's edition:
Everybody’s Home – let the Federal Government know that ending the housing crisis is urgent and important
People are getting sick because of their rental homes
Large public housing estate renewal proposals failing to stack up – from Coffs Harbour to Riverwood
When the safety net fails – the regional housing crisis in Bega and Tamworth
Aftershock – two and a half years of a pandemic, fire and floods
GCC Six Cities Discussion Paper
International Students Listening Event
Shelter NSW in the news
National Shelter Council meeting - hosted at Yirranma Place
Our submission on the draft South East & Tablelands Regional Plan 2041
Festival of Urbanism - Renovate or Detonate
Gosford – Women’s Community Shelters in the news!
Hornsby Town Centre Masterplan
https://mailchi.mp/shelternsw/shelter-nsw-october-2022-ebulletin…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Coronavirus COVID-19, Estate renewal, Federal Government, Health, Local Government, Planning and development, Regional NSW, State Government, Students, Women.The Tories have trampled on renters for too long, and Liz Truss is about to feel their pain
Gaby Hinsliff The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Rocketing interest rates make this a scary winter for anyone with a mortgage, but arguably even scarier for renters. Rents were already on the rise before this crisis, driven by a shortage of properties as tenants streamed back into big cities post-pandemic. When the pressure group Generation Rent surveyed its supporters, it found 45% of those who had been in their current place for more than a year had been asked to pay more, with cut-throat competition for flats sparking bidding wars and even outbreaks of gazumping. But the big difference between now and Black Wednesday, the last time mortgage rates suddenly rocketed, is that this time renters are more directly exposed. The private rented sector has almost doubled since the early 1990s, as social housing dwindled and an army of amateur landlords, property moguls and assorted hustlers moved in to plug the gap.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/14/tories-ren…
# International, Rent, Housing market.