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
Housing investors to pick up slack as first home buyers retreat: AFG
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)One of the country’s biggest mortgage brokers, AFG, expects property investors will continue returning to the market, helping to fill the gap left by retreating first home buyers.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/housing-inve…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Rental vacancy rates at lowest level in years, but still high in some pockets: Domain data
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Renters in Australia’s biggest cities could find it hard to get a good deal with the number of empty properties falling, but there are some neighbourhoods still offering tenants more choice. ... For Sydney renters, the city’s west offers the most vacant rentals, with 4.6 per cent of properties in the Parramatta region and 4.4 per cent of rentals in the Auburn area untenanted last month. They were among a dozen Sydney regions, mostly covering Sydney’s middle-ring suburbs, which had a vacancy rate above 3 per cent. Meanwhile, the rate in the inner city fell to 2.9 per cent, down from 3.2 per cent in April.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/rental-vacancy-rates-at-lowest-le…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.FEANTSA The 6th Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe 2021
https://www.feantsa.org/en/report/2021/05/12/the-6th-overview-of-housing-exclusion-in-europe-2021?bcParent=27 (No paywall)This new report is an opportunity to shed light on young people who, especially when poor, are worse affected by housing exclusion than the rest of the population, and were so even before the current health crisis. It also takes stock of the wave of poverty affecting all of Europe, more than a year after the start of the pandemic. (International Union of Tenants)
https://www.feantsa.org/en/report/2021/05/12/the-6th-overview-of…
# International, Housing market, Young people.Hundreds of West Australians become homeless in first month after State’s rental eviction moratorium lifted
Michael Traill (Paywall)More than 100 West Australians were plunged into homelessness in the first month following the State’s rental eviction moratorium being lifted. (The West Australian)
https://thewest.com.au/news/social/hundreds-of-west-australians-…
# Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Light-touch regulation keeps on failing homebuyers in faulty towers
Mike Steketee The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It is all too familiar: another developer of apartment towers facing questions over alleged defects in one of its buildings and the structural integrity of another. ... there have been numerous announcements and pieces of legislation but the fondness of successive governments for light-touch regulation has left fundamental problems untouched.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/light-touch-regulation-keeps…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Owners told to foot the bill for combustible cladding repairs
Euan Black The New Daily (No paywall)From Victoria ... Home owners who have been told their building is unsafe will need to fork out hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove combustible cladding from their homes after being led to believe an agency run by the state government would foot the bill.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/06/03/owners-to…
# Australia, Strata, Asbestos, lead, hazardous materials, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.What’s wrong with 1000 new apartments in the heart of Burwood?
Ned Cutcher The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Under the cover of meeting its state government-imposed housing targets, Burwood Council in Sydney, recently approved a spot rezoning and site-specific Development Control Plan for a small chunk of its town centre. A development application has now been lodged and this once garden suburb, roughly midway between the Sydney and Parramatta business districts, is being asked to embrace the promise of a glamourous new shopping precinct and residential apartment complex with four new towers up to 42 storeys high.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/whats-wro…
# NSW, Planning and development.At last, Aussie property hunters value energy efficient homes
Duncan Murray The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Australian property-hunters are increasingly valuing energy efficient homes, with close to three quarters of recent buyers saying an energy rating was important to them, according to a report by REA Group.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/at-last-a…
# Australia, Utilities water energy internet, Housing market.