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
‘I have to obey’: Su-Lin faces homelessness if she leaves her violent partner
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Su-Lin, like many migrant women, faces a stark choice of whether to stay in a violent relationship or leave and risk homelessness. The Sydney woman in her early 60s emigrated from China to Australia several years ago, full of hope for a new life and new relationship. ... A report released by Everybody’s Home and Equity Economics a year ago found about 9120 women a year are becoming homeless after leaving their homes due to domestic and family violence and being unable to secure long-term housing. Another 7690 women a year are returning to perpetrators due to having nowhere affordable to live.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-have-to-obey-su-lin-faces-…
# NSW, Domestic violence, Homelessness, Race and ethnicity.‘The system is creaking’: Sydney’s housing stress hotspots revealed
Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)One in four home borrowers across large parts of Sydney’s west and south-west were already paying more than 30 per cent of household income to service their mortgage before this year’s interest rate increases. These housing stress hotspots will soon come under added financial pressure with the Reserve Bank expected to hike interest rates by 0.5 of a percentage point on Tuesday, taking the benchmark cash rate to a three-year high of 1.35 per cent. ... The share of renters under financial pressure due to housing costs in some suburbs was even higher. In Fairfield, 55 per cent of tenants were paying over 30 per cent of household income on rent, while in Greenfield Park-Prairiewood the share was 52.3 per cent and in Condell Park 51.7 per cent. ... Those spending more than 30 per cent of household income to service a mortgage or pay rent have traditionally been defined as being in housing stress, especially households among the lowest 40 per cent of earners.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-system-is-creaking-sydne…
# NSW, Rent, Families, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.‘I take pride in myself now’: Victoria to boost housing access for ex-prisoners
Stephanie Convery and Benita Kolovos The Guardian (No paywall)Former prisoners and politicians say having a place to call their own helps reintegrate offenders into society and reduces reoffending rates. ... On Monday, the Victorian government is set to announce it will contribute $33m to a new program named Arc to help people leaving prison who are either homeless or at risk of homelessness to access secure, stable housing.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/04/i-take-pr…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Homelessness.‘Fear factor’: Property outlook sours as banks predict record price plunge
Matthew Elmas The New Daily (No paywall)Australians must brace for the worst housing correction on record as rising interest rates and recession fears strangle the property market. That’s the latest warning from the big banks, which are now predicting that most of the gains booked during the pandemic house price boom will be erased over the next two years.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2022/07/01/property-…
# Australia, Housing market.Show me your stars: Apartment buyers start pulling deposits after new rating system
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Apartment hunters have pulled deposits and are switching to builders and developers who have earned gold star ratings on a new ratings platform, says NSW building commissioner David Chandler. Since the Independent Construction Industry Rating Tool (iCIRT) register was launched in May, including the first 19 companies rated as trustworthy, four families told Chandler they had withdrawn deposits from unrated builders and developers and taken their business to one built by a rated company. ... iCIRT was introduced as part of reforms aimed at avoiding repeats of the Mascot and Opal towers debacles,
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/apartment-buyers-start-pulli…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Sustainable co-housing community to be built in Canberra's north to meet downsizing needs without compromising environmental impact
Charlotte Gore ABC (No paywall)A group of Canberrans keen to reduce their environmental impact and downsize are creating their own sustainable co-housing community in Canberra's north. ... The co-housing building is designed to appear from the street as one large house, but will actually contain three attached one-storey units and one shared building. Stellulata Cohousing says the build is focused on sustainability and will include solar panels with battery storage, high-efficiency electric appliances for hot water, heating and lighting, and rainwater harvesting. The ACT government selected the design to be a Demonstration Housing Project, which aims to showcase ways to deliver a compact and active city through innovative planning, design and delivery.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-02/act-sustainable-building-…
# Australia, Share houses, Utilities water energy internet, Climate change, Older people, Planning and development.Housing lawyers warn of ‘catastrophic’ impact of caps on recovery costs for tenants
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Housing lawyers have warned of the potentially “catastrophic” impact on their ability to provide legal aid if the government goes ahead with its plans of implementing fixed recoverable costs on housing cases. In a letter to justice minister James Cartlidge and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a group of housing trade bodies and legal aid groups have said the plan to cap the amount of fees solicitors can recover from the losing parties in civil cases will cut their income by a quarter. ... The bodies also warned that the introduction of FRCs could lead to some legal aid providers “ceasing to practise altogether”. They are now calling for housing cases to be exempt from the plan and for further “detailed research to be carried out before costs reforms are considered in this area”.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/housing-lawyers-warn-o…
# International, Eviction, Repairs, Tribunal NCAT.Rent affordability biggest issue for the sector, says former Scottish regulator executive
Stephen Delahunty Inside Housing (Paywall)The biggest issue for the [social] housing sector in England is rent affordability as double-digit inflation leaves landlords facing some tough choices in the not too distant future, the former director of regulation at the Scottish Housing Regulator has said.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/rent-affordability-big…
# International, Public and community housing, Women.