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 would end up on the street’: Pensioner in legal fight with Gerry Harvey’s trust over home eviction
Charlotte Grieve The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A terminally ill woman has taken on business tycoon Gerry Harvey with a lawsuit to fight a forced eviction from a property that she lived in rent-free with her now deceased husband for more than eight years. ... In an affidavit, Mr Harvey claims the property was never intended for Ms Luker to remain in permanently and while sympathetic to her situation, he now wishes to sell the property. Whether Ms Luker has any legal claim to the land will now be decided by the courts. Ben Butler writes in 'The Guardian' on the same matter at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/09/gerry-harvey-taken-to-court-by-longtime-friends-widow-in-bid-to-stop-eviction]
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/i-would-end-up-on-the-…
# NSW, Eviction, Personal stories.What the Barefoot Investor wants you to know about preparing for fires and floods
Patrick Wright ABC (No paywall)"A lot of people are underinsured. They don't have enough insurance when catastrophe hits," Mr Pape says. "When you're in that situation, you don't get back to normal because you don't have enough money." If you've never experienced a fire or flood first-hand, disasters can seem like an abstract risk. But they do happen — and it pays to be prepared.
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/insurance-how-to-prepare-for-flo…
# Australia, Housing market.How to protect yourself from dodgy builders and defects ruining your dream home
Adam Langenberg ABC (No paywall)Building a home can be a stressful time, made more anxiety-inducing if you end up locked in a legal battle over defects instead of moving into the dream home you'll be paying off for decades. Stories of home builders failing to deliver continue to surface, with multiple homeowners telling of issues that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix, or problems so bad their new home needs to be demolished.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-09/tas-how-to-prevent-a-dodg…
# Australia, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Unprecedented land price increase provokes division across society.
Karl Fitzgerald Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)Friday’s national accounts revealed a record land price increase of $1.72 trillion. That is a 27.6 per cent increase in land values in one year — almost three times the previous record. This has never been seen before and hopefully will never be repeated. ... One thing is certain, land owners enjoy the gains of any government support offered to the market. These huge numbers are hard to fathom. ABS data is typically more conservative than other measures, with it based on council site valuations. The windfall to land holders equated to 86 years of national banking profits. Land prices increased by more in a year than the entire value of all of Australia’s wealthiest companies, as measured by the market capitalisation of the ASX. But yet not one major news channel has reported on it. ... Australia’s land and housing debate is dominated by the need for added supply to address affordability pressures. The pandemic induced hit to net migration of -95,300 was equivalent to an extra 36,653 homes becoming available to the market. Instead of this added supply reducing pressure on land and housing prices, we saw a record surge. This should strike a note of caution at the incessant call for more land rezonings.
https://johnmenadue.com/unprecedented-land-price-increase-provok…
# Australia, Housing market.Premier should not be deterred from bold move on tax reform
Editorial The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)While, in many respects, Premier Dominic Perrottet wants to continue the policies of his predecessor Gladys Berejiklian, he made it plain on Thursday that he is taking a much bolder approach on a crucial issue of economic reform. Mr Perrottet, at his first estimates hearing as Premier, declared that he was committed to replacing the current system of one-off stamp duty with an annual land tax. ... As the NSW productivity commission said in a white paper in June, stamp duty is the most inefficient way to raise tax because it is a tax on moving homes. It discourages existing home owners from moving when they have the opportunity to live in a new place, such as when they want to take up a work opportunity or move closer to family. It discourages empty nesters looking to downsize.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/premier-should-not-be-deterr…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, Tax.Widespread money laundering in property locking out Australians from owning homes, Senate told
Christopher Knaus The Guardian (No paywall)Weak and outdated laws are allowing widespread money laundering in the property sector, making Australia a “destination of choice” for illicit funds and “locking many Australians out of owning their own homes”, a Senate inquiry has been told.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/09/widesprea…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, International.Regional housing crisis needs multistorey developments, more land releases: Taskforce
Bronwyn Herbert, Joanne Shoebridge, and Bruce MacKenzie ABC (No paywall)Multi-level developments in regional cities could free up homes in the suburbs and ease housing pressure, says New South Wales Housing Minister Melinda Pavey. Ms Pavey said the recommendations reflected the pressure the pandemic had put on regional housing markets over the past year. The Regional Housing Taskforce, commissioned by the state government in June, today released its report with five key recommendations in addressing safe, secure and affordable housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-09/regional-housing-taskforc…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market, Regional NSW, State Government.Australians pushed out of suburbs as house prices race ahead of wages
Sezen Bakan The New Daily (No paywall)Runaway house prices and stagnant wages are killing the Australian dream as plummeting housing affordability pushes younger people out of the suburbs they grew up in, according to the author of a new report. Research principal Mark McCrindle said housing is now so expensive that young Australians cannot afford property in their parents’ suburbs.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2021/11/08/house-prices-prope…
# Australia, Families, Housing affordability, Housing market, Young people.