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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Less properties available for rent as investors ‘sell up’
Sky News (No paywall)Vacancy rates plunge, rents soar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juejkCwM-eI&ab_channel=SkyNewsAu…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Housing market.Be brave and commit: how to tap into your tenant base to find board members
Anne-Marie Bancroft and Jaimi Shanahan Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Anne-Marie Bancroft and Jaimi Shanahan share tips on how to refine your board recruitment process, to tap into the pool of talent among your tenants and customer base.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/comment/be-brave-and-com…
# International, Public and community housing, Landlords and agents.Redland Mayor and state government at odds over housing plan
Kate McKenna and Rachel Riga ABC (No paywall)Queensland's Deputy Premier has taken the extraordinary step of taking charge of a south-east Queensland council's housing strategy after it failed to update its plan, which is more than 10 years old
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-15/redlands-housing-strategy…
# Australia, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.‘Excessive’ apartment plans rejected, as one of the city’s worst eyesores lives on
Tom Clowie The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)One of Melbourne’s worst eyesores will continue to blight the city streetscape after a planning application was rejected for apartments on the site of the former Cancer Council offices. The dilapidated building, at the corner of Rathdowne and Victoria Streets in Carlton, has fallen into a worsening state of disrepair since it was sold to developers by the charity almost 10 years ago.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/excessive-apartment-pla…
# Australia, Local Government, Planning and development.Why house prices fell so fast, and when the falls could stop
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)The power of rising interest rates to push down house prices has been laid bare in a new graph that shows property values fell within weeks of the first hike to hit Australia in a decade. Property values were still rising across the combined capital cities in the first months of this year, CoreLogic’s daily home value index showed, albeit at a modest pace as the pandemic property boom petered out.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/why-house-prices-fell-so-fa…
# Australia, Housing market.The Sydney suburbs where house prices have doubled over the past decade
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)House values are at least double what they were a decade ago in more than 60 per cent of Sydney suburbs, despite the recent property downturn. But experts say such growth is unlikely to be repeated in the decade to come, and warn buyers not to pin their hopes on misguided suggestions that property prices typically double every 10 years.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-sydney-suburbs-where-ho…
# NSW, Housing market, Sydney.House price growth has far surpassed apartments in recent years. Could the gap narrow?
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)House prices rose much faster than apartment prices during the most recent property boom, but that trend is unlikely to be repeated after the current downturn ends, economists said. Sydney house prices soared 54 per cent in the three years to March 2022, while units rose only 15 per cent, Domain figures show.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/house-price-growth-has-far-…
# Australia, Strata, Housing affordability, Housing market.Citizens' Assemblies and renting policy: an avenue for fair rental reform?
Riley Brooke and Robert Mowbray Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Citizens' Assemblies are being increasingly explored in other jurisdictions as an avenue to achieve fair and sensible legislative reform across a wide range of issues - including renting. But what are they, and how could they be applied to improve renting here in NSW? Let’s start by looking at how the majority of decisions around renting policy are made right now, and what some of the problems there are with that. ... Up to 48% of MPs across the political spectrum are landlords of residential premises, a proportion far in excess of the proportion in the general community. ... At the Federal level, the numbers are even more stark. A 2021 'Sydney Morning Herald' article reports 57% of the members of then Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet owned at least one investment property. ... Daniel Bruce, chief executive of Transparency International UK, [states]: ' ... With parliamentarians far more likely to own second homes than the general population, it’s reasonable to question how representative their experience is of the housing crisis and whether this has some bearing on the political appetite for change.” ... Citizens’ Assemblies bring a mix of people together by democratic lottery and give them all the tools, information and time to properly have a say on the important issues that affect our everyday lives. ... The solutions devised by Citizens' Assemblies can help politicians make decisions that are in the best interests of the general population and that everyone can trust.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/citizens-assemblies-and-renting-…
# NSW, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, Housing affordability, State Government.