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
The knowledge economy is behind the soaring price of land
Ross Gittins The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Over the two centuries and more that people have made a serious study of how the economy works, economists have fallen in and out of love with land. At first, they thought it was at the centre of everything, then they decided it wasn’t terribly important. But the wheel may be turning again. In a major speech last month, the Grattan Institute’s Brendan Coates criticised his profession for its “longstanding intellectual neglect of the economics of land”. You don’t have to think about housing affordability for long to realise it is not actually the high cost of building a house that’s the problem, it’s the high cost of the land it’s built on.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/the-knowledge-econom…
# History Australia, Housing market.How WA's rental crisis saw this family of four almost end up on the street
Tabarak Al Jrood ABC (No paywall)After weeks of struggling to find an affordable rental property, Darshana Lamprecht turned to her community in a last-ditch bid to keep her family off the streets. he 46-year-old was informed by her landlord that they intended to move back into the property in Perth's south and that she and her three children would have to move out. "I was quite shocked, unprepared and thought this is not going to be good," she said. "I know families have been searching for months, and they still haven't found anywhere." With her two youngest children having disabilities, the single mum had to quit her job as a nurse to become a full-time carer. She spent weeks looking for another home for her family, but with a tight budget and specific housing requirements needed for her children and an assistance dog, it was almost impossible. ... Shelter WA CEO Michelle Mackenzie said the country's housing crisis was leading to an increase of people experiencing homelessness. ... "We're talking about working families, we're talking about people who've never faced this situation before suddenly in profound distress [and] facing an enormous catastrophe in their lives," she said. ... One of the key promises made by Labor during the election campaign was a $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which would see 30,000 new social and affordable housing properties built in the next five years.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-01/wa-rental-crisis-hits-har…
# Australia, Rent, Disability, Federal Government, Homelessness, Housing market, Personal stories.Rental market snapshot: September 2022
Rent.com.au (No paywall)How is the cost of renting changing in your city? Rent.com.au has released the latest market data for September 2022, including the shift in median rent, price per room and leasing time.
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.'Unsanitary, unliveable': Rented shipping container not fit as a home
Hazel Osborne (No paywall)A family who lived in a shipping container that should "never have been rented out" have been refunded all of their rent payments to the tune of almost $9000. The Kaikōura family, who were granted name suppression by the Tenancy Tribunal, said their living conditions were "unsanitary" and the shipping containers they called home for seven months were illegal. They were awarded a rent refund of $8881 after the tribunal ruled the converted containers unlawful and unlivable, including the power supply provided by an extension cord and water by a garden hose. (Te Ao)
https://www.teaomaori.news/unsanitary-unliveable-rented-shipping…
# International, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Minimum habitability standards.Greens renew push for two-year rent freeze, saying it would save millions of Australians $3000
Alex Chapman (No paywall)Greens Housing and Homelessness spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather said a rent freeze would provide “real and immediate cost of living relief”. “For families choosing between buying food and paying the rent, $3000 could mean the difference between eviction into homelessness and keeping a roof over their heads. Rents are out of control, millions of Australians are struggling to pay the rent, and families are facing living in tents and cars because they can’t afford record rent increases. When Australian renters have paid an extra $7 billion in rent over the last year alone, no wonder so many are struggling.” (7 News)
https://7news.com.au/business/housing/greens-renew-push-for-two-…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing market.Rent assistance is ‘laughably low’, economists warn, but calls for an increase fall flat
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Low-income households face the prospect of rising rents without an increase in rent assistance, as the government rebuffed calls to boost the payments on offer. An emphatic Productivity Commission report on Friday called for an overhaul of taxpayer spending on housing help, saying the government should prioritise a review of rent assistance given the “strong case” to improve its adequacy and targeting. ... Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said reforming Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) was not on the agenda in the coming budget, blaming this on the “$1 trillion debt left behind” by the former Morrison government.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/rent-assistance-is-laughabl…
# Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Welfare.House prices: why a fall isn’t certain and wouldn’t help first-time buyers much anyway
Alan Shipman The Conversation (No paywall)The UK remains a nation of homeowners, with two-thirds of all dwellings belonging to the people who live in them. But as interest rates swiftly rise, there are fears that many of those households will soon find their mortgage payments unaffordable.
https://theconversation.com/house-prices-why-a-fall-isnt-certain…
# International, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Hobbit homes to earthships: the NSW village setting a green example for Australia
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Nestled under a grassy hill near the shire of Gosford, Linda Scott is building a natural house ripped from the pages of Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Nasturtiums bloom near a round front door fit for Bilbo Baggins. Scott has renovated and built homes before. Nothing, though, has been as hard for the 77-year-old as the Hobbit-style house built from bags of earth. ... Scott is one of the 22 original founders of Narara Ecovillage who contributed $7.5 million to buy and develop the 67 hectare site in 2013. Today it is run as a co-operative, with 40 completed homes, units and tiny houses accommodating 113 adults and children. The next stage of 43 lots is now being excavated and developed, and is expected to add another 90 residents.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/hobbit-homes-to-earthships-t…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Climate change, Granny flats, studios, Housing market, Regional NSW.