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
Public housing tenants win exemptions from moving but legal action from others looms
Ian Bushnell (No paywall)Most public housing tenants considered for exemptions from being relocated to new homes as part of the renewal program have been allowed to stay in their current premises. But those who have had their application denied have not given up fighting the move, with some considering legal action.
https://the-riotact.com/public-housing-tenants-win-exemptions-fr…
# Australia, Eviction, Public and community housing, Estate renewal.New strata scheme reporting requirements
NSW Fair Trading (No paywall)All NSW strata schemes now need to report key information online annually. If you’re on a strata committee, your scheme can take steps now to prepare. Find out more. (Services NSW News)
https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/strata/annual-re…
# NSW, Strata, State Government.Sydney council to hire anti-development ‘advocate’ despite low building rates
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Waverley Council will hire a $100,000-a-year community planning advocate to help residents fight development proposals, despite an internal report finding the Waverley local government area had one of the lowest building rates in Sydney. In what will be a litmus test for other councils considering the move, Labor Mayor Paula Masselos said the role would help correct an “imbalance” between developers and the community, which was causing “the rapid destruction of our built environment”.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-council-to-hire-anti-…
# NSW, Landlords and agents, Local Government, Planning and development.‘I’m sounding a bit like a Liberal’: Councils pursue massive cash grab
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Several NSW councils are making audacious bids to increase rates as the cost of living soars, but the moves have proved controversial within their own ranks. City of Canada Bay Council in Sydney’s inner west voted last week to consult the community on a plan to hike rates by 32.52 per cent over the next four years – 20 per cent more than the projected “rate peg” set by the independent regulator.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-m-sounding-a-bit-like-a-li…
# NSW, Local Government, Tax.Three-dog night? Staying warm in Melbourne on the cheap
Sue Hewitt The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)I don’t need a heater. I have Cara, The Wonder Dog. She is short and rotund but Cara’s not fat, just big-boned. And she’s the best hot water bottle I’ve ever known. Some may say: “Ooh, you can’t sleep with your dog”. Well, I do, and just like my former husbands, she snores and farts and wriggles. But without the morning-after angst.
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/three-do…
# Australia, Utilities water energy internet.How a lockdown coping mechanism led to a brighter family home
Nell Card The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Name just about any colour and you will find it in Jo Glossop’s bright, bold family home in Kelsall, a small village outside Chester. Jo lives here with her husband, James, and their three children, Bella, Annie and Ronnie. The family moved into the 1970s detached property with their first newborn in 2007. “We were looking for a period house with beautiful original features,” Jo recalls, “but we soon realised that we’d get a lot more for our money if we went with this 70s box instead.”
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/aug/21/how-a-lockd…
# International, Home.Plans to build towers above Central Station will be ‘engineering feat’
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The NSW government has warned that a window of opportunity to reshape 24 hectares around Sydney’s Central Station will close within the next decade because the rail lines it plans to build over will become too busy for a project of the scale proposed. Plans for buildings up to 34 storeys, plazas and a pedestrian avenue separating towers were unveiled on Monday in a draft blueprint for the site at the southern end of the CBD, which is dominated by Australia’s busiest train station.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/plans-to-build-towers-above-…
# NSW, Housing market, Planning and development, Sydney.Making a sea-change to regional NSW? That’ll be $1 million
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Half a dozen coastal hotspots and neighbouring towns in regional NSW have a median house price north of $1 million, new figures show, and some have even overtaken Sydney prices. In the regional million-dollar club, the booming property market has priced out locals and, in some cases, forced them to move hours away, an effect experts say will be felt for generations to come.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/making-a-sea-change-to-regi…
# NSW, Housing market, Regional NSW.