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
Mortgage rates rising, but savers still getting short-changed by banks
John CollettThe Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)
Banks have passed on only a fraction of the rise in official interest rates to savers, at a time of mounting cost of living pressures, including higher mortgage repayments and rents, and low wage growth. While the Reserve Bank of Australia has increased the cash rate by 2.25 percentage points since May, bonus saver accounts are paying just 1.31 percentage points more in interest, or just over half of the cumulative increase in official rates. Meanwhile, home loan customers have had almost all the cash rate rises passed on.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/banking/mortgage-rates-rising-but-s…
# Australia, Families.Recession risks grow as home buyers endure rate rises
Shane WrightThe Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)
The Australian economy is facing a sharp slowdown that could drive up unemployment next year, with growing fears the Reserve Bank may lift interest rates too high too quickly on heavily indebted home buyers as it fights to bring inflation under control.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/recession-risks-grow-as-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.COVID lockdowns spur interest in house history — so how do you uncover your home's secrets?
Rosemary BolgerABC (No paywall)
Australians have spent more time than ever at home in the last two-and-a-half years, so it is little wonder some have become curious about what has gone on within their own four walls. Also, check out the article by Rosemary Bolger and Cassie McCullagh entitled: 'Tony Parker's mid-century furniture designs remain popular with collectors' on ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-22/tony-parker-furniture-mid-century-design-collectors/101457604].
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-21/house-history-post-covid-…
# History NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home.King Charles’s endless meddling in architectural politics has accomplished nothing
Phineas HarperThe Guardian (No paywall)
As Prince of Wales, Charles campaigned for sustainable townscapes. But good intentions are no match for the UK’s profit-driven system
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/21/king-charl…
# International, Housing market.History and church object to radical rental plan
Jimmy Thomson(No paywall)
Check out the latest issue of 'Flat Chat' which includes a number of stories on build-to-rent.
https://us19.campaign-archive.com/?e=cf977d5bb4&u=6df9c7bf24bfee…
# NSW, Rent, Strata, Affordable housing.A House Is Not a Home: the self-portraits of Brooke DiDonato – in pictures
The Guardian (No paywall)
Brooke DiDonato is a photographic artist based in Austin, Texas. Her latest body of work, A House is Not a Home, is a series of self-portraits that call into question the boundaries of reality and the psychological mindset. She draws on early work positioning her and other people’s bodies in familiar domestic settings – straddling the line between the mundane and the absurd
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2022/sep/18/a-h…
# International, Home.High Court agrees to hear First Nations renters’ case for compensation from NT Government for dilapidated housing
(No paywall)
The High Court will decide whether compensation is available for distress or disappointment suffered by First Nations people living in remote dilapidated housing, in a case that could have ramifications for all Australian renters. The High Court’s decision this afternoon to grant special leave is one of the last steps in a journey for justice started in 2016 for Enid Young, an elderly Eastern Arrernte woman from Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa) in the remote NT. Now her case has made it to the High Court, Ms Young’s fight will be one that could provide greater legal protection for renters across the country when landlords break their obligations, especially when calculating compensation caused by that breach. (GRATA Fund)
https://www.gratafund.org.au/santa_teresa_special_leave
# Legal significance Australia, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Repairs, Tribunal NCAT, Health, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.Sydney's rental crisis, calls to change NSW rental laws
(No paywall)
Sydney's rental crisis has gone from bad to worse with prices soaring by hundreds of dollars a week, right across the city. There are now calls to change state laws to give more power to tenants who in many cases have been pushed to breaking point. (7 News) Also, watch 'Tenants see dramatic increases in weekly rents as supply shortage hits' on the ABC at: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8zCZ2yCpi0&t=2s&ab_channel=ABCNews%28Australia%29]. Whilst in Tasmania, 'Tim's rent is more than doubling, but he says there's nowhere else to go' on ABC News at: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUZuLEIKVh4&ab_channel=ABCNews%28Australia%29].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmJPoDcjXhE&ab_channel=7NEWSAust…
# TUNSW in the media, Video NSW, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, No-grounds evictions, State Government, Sydney.