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
Why falling property prices are actually bad news for first home buyers
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Prospective first home buyers’ relief in seeing property prices fall could be short-lived as higher interest rates reduce the amount they can borrow and the gap between what they can afford and house prices widens. ... [Andrew Wilson, chief economist at My Housing Market, says] 'With low rental vacancy rates, investors are in a position pass on their higher borrowing costs to tenants with higher rents.'
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/why-falling-property-pric…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Housing market.‘We don’t want to be stuck to 300,000 homes a year target’
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Michael Gove cast doubt on the government’s manifesto promise to build 300,000 homes per year by the middle of this decade. The housing secretary admitted that the government was unlikely to build 300,000 homes this year, adding that ministers are doing everything they can “in order to ensure more of the right homes are built in the right way in the right places".
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/gove-we-dont-want-to-b…
# International, Housing market.St Vincent’s Hospital hopes for healthy return from deceased estate
Lucy Macken Domain (No paywall)The operator of St Vincent’s Hospital is hoping to cash in on the tail end of the Sydney housing boom by listing a row of five Victorian terraces in Darlinghurst for about $11 million. “The major factor for us in selling these properties is, simply, it’s time,” said a spokesperson from St Vincent’s Health Australia, the country’s largest not-for-profit healthcare and aged-care organisation.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/st-vincent-s-hospital-hopes…
# NSW, Housing market.Clive Palmer's United Australia Party is promising to cap mortgage interest rates. Can it be done?
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)With the cost of living surging and interest rates rising for the first time in more than a decade, a cap on mortgage repayments would come as welcome relief for millions of borrowers. But can it be done and who would end up paying for it? Clive Palmer's United Australia Party (UAP) has been spruiking a 3 per cent, five-year cap on mortgage interest rates as the centrepiece of its election campaign. ... But how would it work?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-12/united-australia-party-mo…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.Vote to end older peoples' homelessness
Housing for the Aged Action Group (No paywall)It's just ten days until Australians make a historic choice in the Federal Election, and the potential of achieving our demands of More Housing, More Support, and Less Inequality hangs in the balance.
https://mailchi.mp/64aec79ab65c/older-tenants-voice-summer-editi…
# Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Homelessness, Housing market, Older people, Women.Homelessness is common for teens leaving out-of-home-care. We need to extend care until they are at least 21
Phillip Mendes The Conversation (No paywall)Young people transitioning from out-of-home care – whether it’s foster, kinship or residential care – are disadvantaged in many ways. Many have experienced abuse, neglect, family hardship or illness. They may feel long-term grief due to family separation. And while some enjoy stable placements with committed foster or kinship carers, others – particularly those in residential care, supervised by rostered staff – may experience instability as friends or support workers come and go. Most exit the out-of-home care system at 18, or younger, without ongoing support. Unfortunately, however, many such young people quickly encounter homelessness, unemployment and contact with the criminal justice system soon after leaving out-of-home care. Instead of leaving these people to fend for themselves at age 18 (or younger), we need a nationally consistent model of extended care that supports care leavers until age 21.
https://theconversation.com/homelessness-is-common-for-teens-lea…
# Australia, Homelessness, Young people.‘I’d be in jail’: The former foster kids who are rewriting their fate
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)For most young people, moving out of home is a rite of passage and a cause to celebrate. But for the 1200 18-year-olds leaving the NSW foster care system every year, it’s a matter of survival. Within the first year of leaving state care, nearly half of former foster children will wind up homeless, unemployed, in jail or pregnant. They are also more likely to suffer poor mental health. [Others] are hoping for a different path. They are among 48 young people living in Foyer Central in Chippendale, a two-year program that social services organisation Uniting started a year ago to help young people transition from the care system to independent living.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-d-be-in-jail-the-former-fo…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Personal stories, Work, employment, Young people.Skipping meals to pay rent
Daniel Ziffer ABC (No paywall)Homeowners have been slugged with an interest rate rise for the first time in more than a decade, but for Australians who rent it's bad news too. The number of rental properties available is at the lowest level in almost 20 years, and rents are soaring. [So] what's driving the nation's rental crisis?
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/abc-news-daily/the-perfect…
# Audio Australia, Rent, Housing market.