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
A tale of two Sydneys: ‘We’re in the same storm, but different boats’
Jordan Baker and Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)... It’s a different story in Campsie, the south-west Sydney suburb that last week became the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak. There, three generations live in two-bedroom apartments, children play in driveways, and there’s no such thing as a quiet place to work or study. The five-kilometre exercise radius, which has now been extended to Greater Sydney as of tomorrow, allows a masked walk to Wiley Park, a greenish patch surrounded by arterial roads which, in recent weeks, has been circled by police helicopters telling everyone to go home. ... [Blacktown resident Emmanuel Kei] lost his job last year when his employer closed down amid the pandemic’s disruptions. ... [He] has also been hunting for a place to rent - a task made especially difficult by the stringent restrictions in Sydney’s west. He feels lucky to have found a place ... after a long stint in temporary accommodation. “Because of the lockdown you couldn’t do rental inspections and things like that,” says Kei, who migrated from South Sudan 15 years ago. “It has been a pretty stressful time.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/a-tale-of-two-sydneys-we-re-…
# NSW, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Race and ethnicity.Rents are rising as landlords sell to cash in on property price boom
Gabija Gataveckaite and Charlie Weston (No paywall)From Ireland ... Landlords are abandoning the rental sector and selling off rental properties in significant numbers in an attempt to cash in on the lucrative property market. New figures from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) outline how almost 500 notices of termination from landlords intending to sell were lodged between April and June alone. The figures supplied to the Irish Independent show a steady upward trend in landlords selling when compared with pre-pandemic levels. The RTB received 367 notices in the second half of 2019 and 395 notices in the first quarter of 2020. (Independent.ie)
https://www.independent.ie/business/personal-finance/property-mo…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19.How ‘unelected faceless men and women’ keep approving NSW developments
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Local planning panels were created to stamp out corruption, but councillors from across the political spectrum say they favour developers and undermine democratic accountability.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/how-unelected-faceless-men-and-w…
# NSW, Planning and development, State Government.Boasting about budget expenditure numbers does not make for a housing policy
Vivienne Milligan Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)The Federal Minister for Housing and Homelessness, Michael Sukkar, is fond of quoting large numbers when quizzed on what his government is doing to address Australia’s enduring housing crisis. So, we hear for instance that annual Federal spending on housing and homelessness programs has reached over $8b and that his government is exceeding Labor’s spend on social housing and homelessness support. Such numbers and claims deserve closer scrutiny. What comprises the $8b and how far does it go in addressing the need? What have been the differences between recent Coalition and Labor Government policies in this area? [Read on]
https://johnmenadue.com/boasting-about-budget-expenditure-number…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Homelessness.A split city: communities across Sydney commit to rebuild trust
(No paywall)Organisations representing over two million people from the Catholic Church to United Workers Union and Arab Council Australia, said it is time to rule a line in the sand and rebuild trust and inclusion across Sydney as we confront growing numbers of infection and deaths. ... People from low-income households who are playing their part by staying at home, getting tested and getting vaccinated should not be forced into poverty for doing the right thing. Families living in Western and southwestern Sydney still need to pay for rent, groceries and bills, but the current support payments are confusing and inadequate. ... Public health is built on trust. Trust is destroyed when rules are enforced inconsistently across the city. Images of securitised streets in Western Sydney and sunbakers on Sydney beaches corrode trust. None of us can afford this kind of division ... (Sydney Alliance)
https://www.sydneyalliance.org.au/news-1/a-split-city-communitie…
# NSW, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Race and ethnicity.Under pressure: First-home buyers vulnerable to higher rates
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Rapidly rising property prices are forcing some first-home buyers seeking to get a foothold on the property ladder to unwisely stretch their finances to the limit, a move that experts say could be detrimental to their long-term financial health. ... The Sydney first-home buyer household would spend 54 per cent of their monthly after-tax income on their mortgage. Increasing the interest rate by 1.5 percentage points would hike the household’s spend on the mortgage to 66 per cent.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/under-pressure-first-home…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Poor housing has direct impact on mental health during COVID lockdowns, study finds
Norman Hermant ABC (No paywall)Your mental health in the pandemic "depends on where you live", new research suggests, with noisy, dark and problem-plagued homes increasing anxiety, depression, and even loneliness during lockdowns. But the Australian study, published in the International Journal of Housing Policy, says better-designed buildings and developing a greater sense of neighbourhood could make a big difference. ... Researchers from the University of Sydney surveyed more than 2,000 people as part of a study on the pandemic's impact on Australians. ... Housing flaws, such as mould, damp, or cracked walls, were also a major predictor of depression. ... Survey respondents ranged from home owners, to renters, to those in share houses and even included those who were couch surfing. The conclusion? Renters and low-income earners were much more likely to suffer housing-related mental health issues during lockdowns.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-13/covid-lockdown-mental-hea…
# Research alert Australia, Rent, Repairs, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Mould.Battery-supported microgrid in outer Melbourne development to cut bills by 50 per cent
Poppy Johnston The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Residents of a 32-home all-electric development in Wollert in Melbourne’s north can expect to cut their electricity bills in half thanks to rooftop solar and a precinct-wide microgrid. The Villawood Properties development, delivered by Metricon, will be serviced by a microgrid, which is a self-sufficient energy system that will allow renewable energy generated on the 36 homes and residents’ club to be shared.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/battery-s…
# Australia, Utilities water energy internet, Housing market.