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
Why have Australian house prices risen despite falling population growth?
Nicole Gurran and Peter Phibbs Domain (No paywall)If you’d asked how to stop house price inflation in pre-pandemic times, pausing international immigration and building a lot of new houses would have been high on the list. ... [But] last year, we saw just how simplistic these claims really are. The number of new migrants and returnees to Australia fell by 244,000 people. But prices continued to rise – houses earned more than wages over the past 12 months. ... It is important to remember that the economics of housing is different to that of bananas. This is because housing is a financial asset as well as a consumption good. So, the largest impact on house prices is the supply and price of finance – not new dwellings. ... The Commonwealth appears to have turned its back on social housing, limiting the capacity of the states in what has traditionally been a joint responsibility. ... Nevertheless, some of the government responses during the pandemic offer new promise. Accommodation was provided for people experiencing homelessness, while increased income support enabled some renters to access better housing or alleviated financial stress. Moratoriums on rental evictions have demonstrated the need for increased tenure security in the private rental sector. ... For the growing number of Australians renting in the private sector, improved rental protections – for instance, an end to no-fault evictions – is critical, and increased support for low-income earners is long overdue.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/why-have-australian-house-prices-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Federal Government, Housing market, No-grounds evictions, State Government.Sydney’s ‘haves and have-nots’: poor access to green space in LGAs of concern
Josh Nicholas (No paywall)The Sydney lockdown has exacerbated inequity in the areas hardest hit by Covid and this is being made worse by a lack of access to green space, according to Guardian analysis of data from the Australian Urban Observatory. The local government areas of concern – which are under the heaviest lockdown restrictions – have some of the lowest access to public open space in greater Sydney. Data from the census also shows a high proportion of larger families in these LGAs, with many of them living in situations of severe overcrowding.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2021/sep/13/sydneys-h…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Health, Planning and development.Young Australians will pay for our debt via higher house prices
Michael Pascoe The New Daily (No paywall)Just as one generation was scarred by the experience of interest rates nudging close to 20 per cent ahead of the 1990-91 recession, another’s mindset is being formed by the experience of money always being extremely cheap. An economist friend who prefers to remain anonymous observed a result of that is that the young will pay for our debt explosion not through the price of money but by high asset prices.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2021/09/13/debt-covid-young-m…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Camperdown Social Housing Residents protest Over-policing and Rent Conditions while under hard COVID-19 lockdown
Daniel Lo Surdo (No paywall)Residents and supporters of the Common Ground social housing facility in Camperdown protested renting conditions and over-policing after their building was placed in a hard lockdown for two weeks after four tenants tested positive to COVID-19. Residents revealed that the NSW Police, under the direction of NSW Health, were confiscating alcohol and searching packages delivered to the towers whilst tenants are in lockdown. This was confirmed by the Sydney Local Health District, which noted that some deliveries of alcohol were restricted to ensure the safety of health staff and residents. (City Hub)
https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2021/09/camperdown-social-housing-r…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19.Going viral: COVID-19, social housing and social media
Travis Gilbert (No paywall)When a novel coronavirus, with no known effective treatment or vaccination, arrived in Canberra in 2020, the health advice was simple. Stay home, stop the spread, save lives. A week later, the Prime Minister declared there would be a moratorium on evictions from private and social rental homes for all households unable to make rent due to loss of income from the economic fallout of COVID-19. With that, the argument many housing advocates, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had been making for years, was confirmed true. An affordable, safe and secure home that is not crowded and is of sufficient amenity to enable constant modulation of inside temperature is a critical social determinant of good health. (RiotAct!)
https://the-riotact.com/going-viral-covid-19-social-housing-and-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Homelessness.Sydney house values climb $850 a day amid fears of living standard hit
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The average new mortgage to buy an established house in NSW has soared by more than $200,000 in two years amid a nationwide glut of home lending, raising fears our obsession with pumping money into real estate may hurt Australia’s long-term living standards. You will find a similar story for Melbourne at: [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/melbourne-houses-climb-457-a-day-amid-fears-of-living-standard-hit-20210909-p58q6f.html]
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/sydney-house-values-clim…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.More financial support on offer for struggling tenants, landlords
Kayla Osbourne (No paywall)Tenants and landlords affected by ongoing stay-at-home orders will now have access to additional financial support. The NSW Government's Residential Tenancy Support Package has been increased to up to $4500 per tenancy, with the eviction moratorium also extended until November 11, 2021. ... Tenants' Union's policy and advocacy coordinator Jemima Mowbray told the Leader that many renters were experiencing high levels of stress as COVID restrictions continued. "We know that renters are more likely to have precarious or casual jobs and it has now been four or five weeks without a solid stream of income," she said. "What we have seen though is a lot of people have increased their debt as they dug into savings during the lockdown last year. "They may have paid rent but built up credit card debt or bill debt just to make it through last year so they don't have those same resources to draw on this time." (St George & Sutherland Shire Leader)
https://www.theleader.com.au/story/7420071/more-financial-suppor…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.Council compensates homeless man for housing delay
BBC (No paywall)A watchdog ordered a council to pay a homeless man compensation for taking too long to find him emergency accommodation. An investigation found Bristol City Council knew he was at risk of self harm yet took five weeks to find him a place. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report said the delay was "excessive". The council has apologised and paid the man £250 for the distress he suffered.
# International, Homelessness, Local Government.