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
$100 extra a month: Home buyers face mortgage hike with interest rates set to climb further
Shane Wright and Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Home buyers will have to find almost $100 extra a month to pay their mortgages after the Reserve Bank delivered its first increase in official interest rates in 12 years, with warnings it will have to increase them even further to deal with spiralling inflation pressures. Also, read Isaac Gross' article in 'The Conversation' at: [https://theconversation.com/rba-governor-philip-lowe-is-hiking-interest-rates-worst-case-itll-mean-an-extra-600-per-month-on-a-500-000-mortgage-182241]. Read the report by Kate Burke, Tawar Razaghi and Elizabeth Redman in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/as-rates-rise-daniel-and-georgia-feel-safe-as-houses-for-now-20220503-p5ai3l.html]. Read Caitlin Cassidy's article in 'The Guardian' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/03/paying-off-a-mortgage-heres-how-the-rbas-interest-rate-rise-will-affect-your-repayments].
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/100-extra-a-month-home-b…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.When will we talk about housing affordability for Australians who can’t get on the property ladder?
Jennifer Beveridge The Guardian (No paywall)“Rental prices have exploded, making it near impossible to find a new home and keep myself and my children in our community … It is extremely stressful not being able to feel secure in our home.” [Jennifer Beveridge, CEO of Tenants Victoria, says:] 'Working in a grassroots tenants organisation, we hear these anguished accounts too often – this one is from a single mother in Gippsland.'
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/03/when-will-…
# Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Housing affordability challenge requires leadership and vision
Editorial The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When he appeared before the parliamentary inquiry into housing affordability and supply in November, economist Saul Eslake asked MPs whose interests they were most concerned about: “The 11 million Australians who already own at least one property, and the more than 2 million who own more than one, or the minority, albeit a growing minority, who have been unable to buy?” ... Instead of reforming the tax regime, Albanese is now spruiking the government as an investor in and creator of housing. ... The absence of a genuine reform agenda from either of the major parties short-changes us all. An economy preoccupied with house prices, jobs, inflation and overall GDP will end up counting the cost in social division, homelessness and diminished quality of life for too many of its citizens. ... Today the search is on for a leader who can devise a national strategy on housing that targets those in greatest need, including those who are not buying but renting. When it comes to housing, we cannot and should not allow any Australians to be forgotten.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/housing-affordability-challenge-…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.The Observer view on the cost of living crisis
Observer Editorial The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Cabinet ministers’ glib shortcuts are dire response to economic crisis ... The UK has never built enough housing without significant public sector investment into social housing; yet social housebuilding levels have dropped dramatically since the 1980s, leaving the social housing stock to dwindle as a result of demolitions and the right to buy. This has pushed more and more people who have little hope of ever buying their own home into an overpriced private rented sector. Britain urgently needs a programme of public investment in housebuilding to create more affordable homes for rent.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/01/observer-v…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market.Could housing co-ops help solve the current affordability crisis?
Hilary Harper ABC (No paywall)Denmark, Sweden and Norway all use some form of co-operative housing to make sure their populations are housed appropriately. We find out what could be adapted from those systems to help address the housing needs of Australians, without disrupting the current model of residential property investment as a way of building wealth. (ABC Life Matters)
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lifematters/could-…
# Audio Australia, Public and community housing, Housing market, International.Queensland’s rental crisis spreads to manufactured home parks
Eden Gillspie The Guardian (No paywall)When Betty Blythe bought into a manufactured home park, she had no idea that years later she’d been cutting back on groceries and scrapping her home insurance due to increases in rent. While she owns her home in southern Queensland, Blythe leases the land from the park owner, with rent going towards shared facilities and utilities. Her rent is now $31 a week more than what it was four years ago, and Blythe said as a pensioner every cent counts.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/03/queenslan…
# Australia, Land lease communities.‘It’s shown me how independent I can be’ – housing designed for people with disabilities reduces the help needed
Jacinta Douglas and Di Winkler The Conversation (No paywall)The federal government has been warning that the rising cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is unsustainable. More than a third of NDIS funding is spent on in-house support provided to 5% of NDIS participants with the highest needs. ... Well-designed homes that foster more independent living and increase community connection can potentially reduce support costs and the need for younger people to live in aged care.
https://theconversation.com/its-shown-me-how-independent-i-can-b…
# Australia, Disability, Housing market, Young people.Extending Right to Buy ‘hare-brained idea’, says Shelter boss
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Over the weekend, The Telegraph reported that prime minister Boris Johnson plans to revive the Right to Buy scheme, which allows social housing tenants to buy their homes at a discount rate. The scheme was first introduced by Margaret Thatcher for council tenants in the 1980s. By 1997, more than 1,700,000 homes in the UK had been sold under the Right the Buy. According to Shelter, only 5% of the social housing sold under the Right to Buy has been replaced. Ms Neate [Shelter boss] said there “could not be a worse time to sell off what remains of our last truly affordable social homes” as the current cost of living crisis means “more people are on the brink of homelessness than homeownership”.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/extending-right-to-buy…
# International, Public and community housing, Home ownership, Housing market.