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
First-home buyers struggle as prices continue to rise
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Cashed-up investors are pushing aside first-home buyers as property prices continue to rise. ... loans to investors rose for the ninth month in a row in July to reach their highest level since April 2015. ... Tim Lawless, CoreLogic’s research director, says prices have risen almost 11 times faster than wages over the past year, “creating a more significant barrier to entry for those who don’t yet own a home”.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/first-home-buyers-struggl…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Children under 10 being placed in residential care with traumatic outcomes, experts warn
Elizabeth Cramsie ABC (No paywall)When Millie was 11 she was homeless and living at a bus stop. ... Millie said her own experiences in residential care had added to her trauma but it was better than being homeless.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-06/qld-residential-care-chil…
# Australia, Families, Homelessness, Young people.To solve home-ownership struggles, friends Kate and Emily bought a property together
Kate Reid ABC (No paywall)When Kate and Emily realised they were working towards the same goal, the pair started discussing how they could make joint-property ownership work for them.
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/home-ownership-struggles-solved-…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market.No Cookies
(Paywall)Take it or leave it for picky tenants in housing overhaul. Public housing will move to a “first in, best dressed” system that’s been shown to cut-down on fussy tenants, after 1 in three SA properties were knocked back. (The Advertiser)
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/new-first-in…
# Australia, Public and community housing.Beautiful one day, uninsurable the next?
Nick Kilvert ABC (No paywall)There’s a long history of adaptation on the Queensland coast — but our changing climate could soon make it harder to get a mortgage there.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-09-06/sea-change-queens…
# Hot topic Australia, Climate change, Housing market.Australians save $60 billion a year on overseas travel, spend part of it on buying property
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Australians have saved some $60 billion a year in cancelled overseas travel because of the pandemic, figures show, with part of that cash flowing into the property market. Buyers lucky enough to keep their jobs have been taking the opportunity to use their extra savings to get into the rising property market for the first time, move to a lifestyle destination, or purchase a holiday house or investment property.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/australians-save-60-billion-a-yea…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Five tips for saving for a house deposit at a time of record-high house prices
Melissa Jenkins The New Daily (No paywall)Isn’t there a saying … never do business with friends and family? Well, one property expert believes many Australians will have no choice but to break that rule in coming years, if they have any hope of breaking into the property market.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/dollars-and-sense/2021/09/05/…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Social housing: Labor demands federal intervention after report warns of 200,000 dwelling shortfall in a decade
Finn McHugh Canberra Times (No paywall)Labor is demanding federal government intervention after a warning Australia faces a ticking timebomb on social housing. Despite predictions of a crash at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, data this month revealed low and middle income earners were being locked out of the property market by skyrocketing house prices. And a new report from Compass Housing Services has predicted Australia will face a shortfall of nearly 200,000 social housing properties by 2031, calling for "urgent and significant intervention" from the Commonwealth. The report, released on Monday, warned the states and territories were failing to keep up with demand, and only planned a combined 66,125 new dwellings over the next decade. It found that would still exclude 100,000 families on current waiting lists, a number rising to 196,000 when an expected population increase was factored in. You will find a media release from Compass Housing Services and a link to the full report at: [https://www.compasshousing.org/news]
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7408155/stark-warning-ove…
# Research alert Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Housing market.