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
The Rules For Real Estate Agents During Lockdown Prove Just How Fkd It Is To Be A Renter
Melissa Mason (No paywall)I moved house this week. Moving out during a COVID outbreak is scary enough – dealing with removalists, buying stuff on Facebook Marketplace, all those touchpoints where you come into contact with people at a time where contact is like, the devil. What I didn’t anticipate was the particular hell we would be put through as our home was prepared to be rented again – and the worst part was, it was all legal. (Pedestrian)
https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/real-estate-agent-rules-for-rente…
# NSW, Privacy and access, Housing market, Landlords and agents.I was excited when the eviction notice arrived. Not any more
Simmone Howell The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)We are moving house again. When the notice to vacate arrives in my inbox, I feel a jolt of excitement. Something unexpected is happening, something of consequence. I jump online to look at the listings. I have forgotten that it’s always fun to look until you actually have to look. I have forgotten, too, how the language of real estate is a poetry all its own. It is a masterclass in subtext. ... [But] Today, we have two weeks until our move-by date and nothing is fixed. We have packed our lives into a mobile storage box. COVID-19 numbers are still going up, school is still not happening, life is still not happening. I feel tired and a little desperate. ... People keep telling me that the pandemic has made it a renter’s market but it still seems a fraught and unrewarding process. I fear we’re going to have to take something noir, something with a history of sadness, traces of doom. As I click through the listings, the words from an old rambler’s ballad turn in my mind: If I was where I would be/Then I would be where I am not/Here I am where I must be/Where I would, I can not. Hopefully we will find somewhere soon.
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/i-was-excited-when-the-evi…
# Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home, Housing market.Australia climbs the home price index
Carolyn Cummins The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Go to 3.41pm at this link: The rate of house price growth was on average16.4 per cent across the country - the highest rate since 2003 - according to the Knight Frank Global House Price Index for the second quarter of 2021. That growth rate has catapulted Australia from 19th position on the grid with a growth rate of 6.1 per cent a year ago to now 7th.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/as-is-happened-asx-down-…
# Australia, Housing market, International.Construction giant Lendlease registers as for-profit social landlord
Tim Clark Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... LTYD Homes Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lendlease’s European business, was added to the register of social landlords on 18 August, according to an updated list the Regulator of Social Housing published yesterday. ... A spokesperson for Lendlease, which is ultimately headquartered in Australia, said: “With a pipeline of over 25,000 homes to deliver in the UK over the next 25 years and with many of these being affordable homes, we have decided to register as a provider of social housing.”
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/construction-giant-len…
# International, Affordable housing, International.'All of us are struggling’: regional Australia’s aged care homes strain to stay viable
MadeleineMiller The Guardian (No paywall)Wayne Prosser remembers the day the closure of his father’s nursing home was announced in the small town of Harden on the south-west slopes of New South Wales. “It was horrendous,” he says. “They called a meeting…and said we’re closing within six weeks.” Prosser, a lifetime farmer like his father, Rusty, says the distress around the room at the St Lawrence Residential Aged Care nursing home quickly spilled into the community. ... [The chief executive of Southern Cross Care (NSW & ACT), Helen Emmerson said] “Inadequate funding, staff shortages, occupancy challenges, limited allied health services and a lack of after-hours support services, including pharmacy and GP access, made it challenging to maintain the quality of care, safety and support necessary at St Lawrence. “This was not sustainable in the long term and did not meet stringent standards of care.” The closure of St Lawrence highlights a crisis in country nursing homes ..
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/16/all-of-us…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people.Migrants trying to get into Hobart's housing market face extra tax hurdle that pushes many homes out of reach
Sarah Jane Bell ABC (No paywall)Buying a house in Hobart is hard. For Habib ur Rehman, it's even worse. The new migrant has a more than $40,000 tax handicap preventing him from buying a home in the state because of a surcharge the state government introduced for foreigners. "I have considered Australia like my home but … I felt like I am not a first-class citizen here," Mr Rehman said. An engineer by trade, Mr Rehman received a state-sponsored skilled migrant visa almost two and a half years ago.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-15/hobart-housing-market-mig…
# Australia, Home ownership, State Government, Tax.New options for village retirement living
Rachel Lane The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Retirement and aged care community provider Aveo has introduced a new payment structure for moving into a retirement village. New residents moving into one of their independent living villages will now have three ways to pay for their new home – called Now, Later and Bond.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/new-options-fo…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people.Calls for crackdown on dodgy builders in Tasmania, with homeowners speaking out about traumatic experiences
Annah Fromberg ABC (No paywall)Adriane and Gillian Creamer began a $400,000 renovation and extension of their Cygnet home, south of Hobart, in November 2019. Nearly two years on it's still not finished and they've spent an extra $150,000 fixing defects and $50,000 on legal fees. The couple, who are approaching retirement, describe it as the most traumatic experience of their life. ... When he questioned the builder about the issues, the couple said the relationship became so strained, they sought legal advice and an assessment from a second building surveyor. ... The relevant regulator in Tasmania, the Consumer, Building and Occupation Services (CBOS), insists there are sufficient consumer protections to force builders to fix defects, without resorting to legal action.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-16/calls-for-crackdown-on-do…
# Australia, Housing market, State Government.