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
‘We haven’t built it, and they’ve come’: the e-change pressures on Australia’s lifestyle towns
Julian Waters-Lynch, Andrew Glover and Tania Lewis The Conversation (No paywall)Slow internet speeds are just the tip of the infrastructure pressures being placed on hundreds of towns within a few hours’ drive of cities – the sweet spot for e-changers looking to combine city jobs with country town lifestyles. Others include health and education services, water security and, most urgently, housing availability and affordability. ... In the Hunter Valley, Southern Highland and Shoalhaven regions of NSW, and in the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast areas in Queensland, house prices rose more than 35% in the 12 months to January 2022. This has contributed to an unprecedented rental crisis, displacing those on lower incomes and making it harder for local businesses to fill job vacancies.
https://theconversation.com/we-havent-built-it-and-theyve-come-t…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing affordability, Housing market, Planning and development, Regional NSW.Departure of housing investors sends rents higher
Robert Harley (Paywall)Australia’s landlords are exiting in increasing numbers even as the housing shortage worsens and rents rise.Leanne Pilkington, the chief executive of real estate agency Laing & Simmons, and deputy president of the Real Estate Institute of Australia, pointed to the shift at The Australian Financial Review Property Summit. A decade ago, investors bought more than 25 per cent of the homes sold in Australia, and sold around 7 per cent, according to the REA Group. Today the figures are reversed. Investors are selling more homes than they are buying.
https://www.afr.com/property/residential/departure-of-housing-in…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.NSW homeless outreach program gets rough sleepers off streets of Tweed Heads
Emma Hannigan and Hannah Ross ABC (No paywall)It was late at night and teeming with rain, and Barry Wood and a friend were "getting soaking wet" in a tent they shared beside a road in northern New South Wales. The former lifeguard had been "sleeping in the bush, trying to survive" for more than two years. "You get run down by it, trying to scrape through every day," he said. Homelessness took a toll on Mr Wood's health. "I've got bad knees and a bad elbow, and I just couldn't get them fixed. I couldn't get my teeth fixed, so I couldn't eat properly," he said. "My father committed suicide. I thought that might be the easy way out of it too." Mr Wood is one of more than 100 people who have been housed in the Tweed under the NSW government's assertive outreach program.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-22/nsw-tweed-heads-program-p…
# NSW, Homelessness, Regional NSW.Granny flats allowed to hit the tight rental market to help Queensland's housing crisis
Sarah Richards ABC (No paywall)Queensland home owners who have granny flats will be allowed to rent them out over the next three years under emergency planning changes designed to alleviate the state's housing crisis. The move will enable secondary dwellings to be made available to people other than immediate family members and expand accommodation options for smaller households, such as students, single persons, older people and couples. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the change would mean "cheaper properties will enter the rental market, helping thousands of people". Also, read Tony Moore's article entitled: 'As govt mulls granny flat rentals, council says communities must have say' in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/queensland/as-govt-mulls-granny-flat-rentals-council-says-communities-must-have-say-20220923-p5bkf0.html].
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-23/qld-granny-flats-rent-lea…
# Australia, Rent, Granny flats, studios, Housing market.Tenant confronted by 'nightmare' court action after landlord defaults on mortgage
Emily Power Domain (No paywall)A New South Wales tenant has revealed the stress of housing uncertainty and court intervention after their landlord failed to pay the mortgage.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/tenant-confronted-by-nightmare-co…
# NSW, Eviction, Mortgagee repossession.Property prices are falling, so where have Sydney’s first home buyers gone?
Kate Burke and Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)First home buyer activity has dropped to its lowest level in years despite falling property prices, as rising interest rates and a fear of overpaying push aspiring homeowners to the sidelines. Declining property prices sound like good news for first home buyers but are of little help when borrowing power is falling faster and prices are still well up on previous years, industry figures say.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/property-prices-are-falling…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, Sydney.Margaret River school holiday tourists add pressure to homeless locals
Georgia Loney ABC (No paywall)A cold tent is no place to grieve, but there are no other housing options for new widow Cheryl Rowe in Margaret River, one of Australia's best-known tourist towns.Her neatly kept tent was filled with flowers the day after the funeral of Peter, her partner of more than 30 years. The caravan park in south-west WA is her temporary refuge after the house she rented for five years was sold. But she cannot stay long.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-24/margaret-river-school-hol…
# Australia, Land lease communities, Homelessness, Older people, Women.Home buyers’ budgets slashed by hundreds of thousands, pushing property prices down
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Home buyers’ budgets have been slashed by hundreds of thousands of dollars, new figures show, as rising interest rates squeeze the amount the average Australian can borrow. Five rate rises since May this year have trimmed the loan size that buyers can qualify for, and put downward pressure on house prices.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/home-buyers-budgets-slashed…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.