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
Point of no return: crunch time as China tries to fend off property crash
Martin Farrer The Guardian (No paywall)With the global economy also at a crossroads, it is not just Beijing’s leadership that is in peril, say experts. China has reached a point of no return in its battle to contain what could be the biggest property crash the world has ever seen, experts are warning, putting the country’s Communist leadership and the global economy in peril. As western countries stand on the edge of a potentially ruinous recession in the coming year, China is also facing a slump thanks to “total collapse” of confidence among ordinary people in the once-buoyant housing market, the continued ravages of Beijing’s draconian zero-Covid strategy and an extreme heatwave that is affecting the supply of power and food. Alarm is spreading in China that tough times are on the horizon ...
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/28/crunch-time-chi…
# International, Climate change, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Families flee as India demolishes 100-metre towers outside Delhi
The Guardian (No paywall)Indian authorities have demolished two illegally constructed skyscrapers in a wide plume of dust debris outside Delhi, razing the tallest structures ever pulled down in the country in less than 10 seconds. Crowds watching the collapse from rooftops on nearby high-rise buildings cheered and clapped as the 103 metre (338ft) tall towers collapsed during a controlled demolition. The supreme court last year ordered the destruction of the towers in the Noida area after a long legal hearing found they violated multiple building regulations and fire safety standards.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/28/india-demolishes-1…
# Video International, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Minimum habitability standards.History of Parker furniture
Cassie McCullgh ABC (No paywall)Do you own a piece of Parker Furniture? Before the flat packs and bulk discounts arrived in the 90s, Parker was among the finest examples of Australian craftsmanship and local manufacturing. Cassie McCullagh spoke to Tony Parker, who was at the helm of Parker Furniture in its heyday.
https://www.abc.net.au/sydney/programs/mornings/tony-parker/1013…
# History, Audio Australia, Home.Why not sell your house and become a renter?
CPSA (No paywall)Now, if as a retiree you own your home, you have an enormous amount of capital locked in. Sell your home, you unlock the capital. Right now, the only way to unlock capital in your home is to take out a reverse mortgage. This has two huge disadvantages. First, a lender will only give you a maximum of 25 per cent of the value of your home. Sell your home, you get 100 per cent. ... The second disadvantage of a reverse mortgage is that you have to repay the loan plus interest if and when you sell. But if you sell, you generally wouldn’t have enough to buy another place. So, you don’t sell. ... [The alternative] Build-to-rent schemes for that reason are very popular with especially older retirees in Europe, whose savings are running out and who live in older homes. Build-to-rent-schemes would not only go a long way to solve Australia’s housing crisis generally, but they can also make life so much more agreeable in retirement.
https://cpsa.org.au/article/why-you-should-sell-your-house-and-b…
# NSW, Rent, Housing market, Older people.Auckland house prices down 15 per cent with the Reserve Bank of NZ now tipping prices across the country to follow
Emily Clark ABC (No paywall)From New Zealand ... When Chanel and Mose Atigi made the decision to put their family home on the market, their property was appraised at $NZ120,000 ($133,000) more than the price it sold for just four weeks later. The couple live in Auckland — a city known as the 'workhorse' of New Zealand's real estate market — where just a year ago buyers were easy to come by and reserves were easily met. This market leads the nation up and down house price cycles — as goes Auckland, so goes the rest of the country.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-27/nz-house-prices-down-as-a…
# International, Housing market.Refurbished Rockhampton aged care facility has 22 empty beds due to staff shortage
Katrina Beavan ABC (No paywall)Though it has up to 80 people on its waitlist, a newly refurbished aged care facility in central Queensland has more than 20 empty beds due to staff shortages. After two decades of planning, stage one of a $47 million redevelopment has just been completed at Benevolent Living in Rockhampton. But the entire top floor of the redevelopment, including 22 new beds, is sitting idle because the not-for-profit organisation cannot find aged care workers to accommodate extra residents.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-27/aged-care-staff-shortages…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people, Work, employment.Brad Pitt’s apparently defunct foundation reached a $20.5 million settlement with Hurricane Katrina survivors over its green housing debacle
Judith Keller The Conversation (No paywall)The six homeowners who sued Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation over the faulty construction of housing it built for them have reached a US$20.5 million settlement with the apparently defunct charity. ... Make It Right built a total of 109 eye-catching and affordable homes in New Orleans for a community where many people were displaced by damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The vast majority of the recently constructed homes are now riddled with construction-related problems that have led to mold, termites, rotting wood, flooding and other woes.
https://theconversation.com/brad-pitts-apparently-defunct-founda…
# International, Affordable housing.China tears down tower blocks in effort to boost stalling economy
Tom Rees (No paywall)China is tearing down tower blocks and pausing construction on buildings that could house 75m people as Xi Jinping’s government seeks to prop up the country’s stalling property market. Analysts have warned Beijing has adopted a “build, pause, demolish, repeat” strategy as Chinese officials seek to restrict supply to avoid a plunge in house prices and boost economic activity through more construction. ... Indebted Chinese developers have been plunged into crisis as the struggling property market weighs heavily on the world’s second-largest economy. China has vast unoccupied “ghost cities” after huge amounts of debt-fuelled development while demolitions have increased as builders run out of money. (The Telegraph) Same article published in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/how-china-is-manipulating-its-property-market-20220824-p5bc84.html]
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/08/23/china-tears-towe…
# International, Housing market, Landlords and agents.