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
Apartment building 12 storeys high collapses in Miami suburb of Surfside
ABC (No paywall)A 12-storey oceanfront apartment block in Florida has partially collapsed, killing at least one person, with dozens of rescuers combing the rubble for survivors. Nearly 100 people were still unaccounted for at noon local time, authorities said, raising fears the death toll could climb sharply. But officials did not know how many were in the tower when it fell at about 1:30am on Thursday local time. ... Officials said the building, built in 1981, was going through a recertification process requiring repairs and that another building was being newly constructed next door, although the cause of the collapse remained unclear. Read more on this developing story at: [https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/miami-area-condo-collapse-causes-massive-emergency-response-20210624-p5844r.html] and [https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/miami-condo-building-had-been-sinking-into-ground-in-1990s-20210625-p5846p.html] and [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/24/emergency-operation-under-way-after-miami-building-collapse]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-24/surfside-florida-apartmen…
# International, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.First-home buyers see contracts shredded as housing market drives up prices
Sean Wales ABC (No paywall)Six months ago, Brittany Goss and her partner Bradley Lockett jumped at the opportunity to get into the housing market. With funding from the Federal Government's HomeBuilder package, the young Tasmanian couple signed up for a house and land package in Perth, 15 minutes from Launceston. ... But when there were delays with their government grants, their dream of owning a first home quickly disappeared. ... The same house would now cost them an extra $91,000, thanks to the market boom since signing the original contract. The couple is now living with Ms Goss' parents in Cressy in rural Tasmania.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-25/first-home-buyers-see-con…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership.Homeowners allowed to rebuild after natural disaster using original planning rules
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Homes destroyed or damaged by fires, floods and other natural disasters in NSW will be able to be rebuilt or repaired under previous planning rules, ensuring property owners are not blocked by onerous restrictions in new standards.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/homeowners-allowed-to-rebuil…
# NSW, Home ownership, Planning and development, State Government.Government lifts efforts to get young Australians out of residential aged care
Rob Harris The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The federal government will increase its efforts to find alternative arrangements for Australians under 45 who are living in residential aged care under several ambitious targets to address the issue. About 6500 young Australians with disability occupy 5 per cent of residential aged care beds because the existing disability service system cannot provide the supports and services they need.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/government-lifts-efforts…
# Australia, Disability, Federal Government, Housing market, Young people.Australians have become $518 billion richer in just three months
Matthew Elmas The New Daily (No paywall)Australians became $518 billion richer in the March quarter as household wealth soared 4.3 per cent – breaking yet another record. ... But only those who own homes or shares are much better off, because 86 per cent of the March quarter growth came from property and stock prices. That means inequality actually worsened over the quarter as those who don’t own property fell even further behind those that do.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2021/06/24/wealt…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership.COVID has disrupted our big cities, and regional planning has to catch up fast
Jason Byrne The Conversation (No paywall)Since the 1950s, the world has experienced a sixfold increase in the number of people living in cities. City dwellers now outnumber rural residents globally and in many individual countries. But the COVID-19 pandemic has begun to disrupt the trajectory, scale and form of urbanisation. ... The pandemic is refocusing planners’ attention on the vulnerability of cities to natural hazards and other threats. Securing food, water and energy, sustaining health services and maintaining critical supply chains are seen as more important than ever. Planners are also concerned about rising social inequality. The pandemic has fast-tracked some trends ...
https://theconversation.com/covid-has-disrupted-our-big-cities-a…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler, two years in, on the bouquets and brickbats
Wendy Frew The Fifth Estate (No paywall)NSW doesn’t need a separate Building Commission, says the man appointed as the state’s Building Commissioner. But it does need a “reformed and modernised” regulator with sufficient powers and technology to implement the government’s reform agenda, David Chandler tells The Fifth Estate.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/nsw-build…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.‘Pancaked’: Florida’s condo collapse
Mark Doman, Stephen Hutcheon and Alex Palmer ABC (No paywall)Authorities are at a loss to explain how one wing of a 40-year-old apartment block on the Florida coast suddenly collapsed in the early hours of Thursday morning, resulting in deaths, injuries and leaving scores of residents still missing. But theories are emerging.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-26/miami-building-collapse-s…
# International, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.