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
Vote for Change: Take action to end older women's homelessness
(No paywall)With 405,000 women aged 45 and over at risk of homelessness in Australia, older women are speaking up, sharing their stories, and demanding political action. (Housing for the Aged Action Group)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa_p8DnqY1U&ab_channel=Housingfo…
# Video Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Homelessness, Older people, Personal stories, Women.New policies barely lighten the load when it comes to affording a home
Nicole Gurran The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)With cost of living pressures starting to bite, housing affordability has moved to centre stage of the election campaign, but the policies of the two major parties are unlikely to deliver much relief to home owners or renters because when it comes down to it, neither party wants house values to fall.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/new-policies-barely-ligh…
# Australia, Rent, Share houses, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Welfare.Labor announces policy to buy 40 per cent stake in private homes and tackle ‘housing crisis’
Anthony Galloway and James Massola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese will promise to slash the cost of buying a home for tens of thousands of Australians as part of a policy under which a Labor government would pay for up to 40 per cent of new houses. ... Similar programs also operate in Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia and are about to start operating in NSW. Also, read Tom Lowrey's article entitled: 'Labor announces "shared-equity" scheme for homebuyers ahead of Federal Election' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-01/labor-affordable-housing-shared-equity-scheme-campaign/101028354]. Read Jessica Riga's article entitled: 'Labor launches campaign in Perth with new housing pledge' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-01/federal-election-live-blog-labor-campaign-launch-albanese/101028792]. Read Katharine Murphy's article entitled: 'Labor to help low and middle income earners buy home with shared ownership scheme' in 'The Guardian' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/30/labor-to-help-low-and-middle-income-earners-buy-home-with-shared-ownership-scheme]. ... [Also] Labor has previously promised a $10 billion fund to invest in social housing by putting money into a new Housing Australia Future Fund. ... Greens leader Adam Bandt will also reveal on Sunday that affordable housing is one of the party’s top five priorities and that it will be a key negotiating item in the event of a hung parliament. ... The Greens’ housing policy is for 1 million publicly owned, affordable homes to be built over 20 years including 125,000 under a shared equity ownership scheme, 125,000 universal-access rental homes and 750,000 new public or community houses. Check out James Massola's article in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/greens-put-affordable-housing-in-their-top-five-policy-issues-for-a-hung-parliament-20220429-p5ah8v.html] [Check out this Shelter Brief entitled: 'Shared-equity home-ownership: welfare and consumer protection issues' from July 2007 at: [https://shelternsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2007-Shared-equity-home-ownership-welfare-and-consumer-protection-issues-Robert-Mowbray-and-Nicholas-Warren.pdf].]
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/labor-announces-policy-t…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Do politicians even want to revive the Australian dream of home ownership?
Gareth Hutchins ABC (No paywall)Who should we believe? Last week, former prime minister John Howard said he didn't "accept" there was a housing crisis in Australia. But that very day, Anglicare released a report on rental affordability that showed otherwise. The report found there were barely any rental properties left in Australia that low income households could afford. And a few weeks earlier, the property group Domain also warned that Australia was facing "a rental crisis." "All capital cities are now operating in a landlords’ market, the first time this has happened since Domain records began," it said. "The rise in investor activity, as well as overseas migrants who will rent upon arrival, will spiral rental demand further and worsen conditions for tenants." Is a rental crisis not a housing crisis?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-01/do-politicians-want-to-re…
# Australia, Rent, Share houses, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing affordability, International.Regulation of private renting
Committee of Public Accounts, House of Commons (No paywall)The private rented sector in England has doubled in size in the last 20 years and now houses 11 million people. However, the sector is failing far too often to provide safe and secure homes for renters, with 13% (589,000) of privately rented properties currently posing a serious threat to the health and safety of renters, costing the NHS an estimated £340 million each year. Tenants are unable to realise their right to a safe and secure home due to an inaccessible and complex regulatory framework and the threat of retaliatory eviction.
# International, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Health, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Local Government, Minimum habitability standards.More affordable housing with less homelessness is possible – if only Australia would learn from Nordic nations
Andrew Scott, Heather Hoist and Sidsel Grimstad The Conversation (No paywall)Housing is expensive in Australia. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Higher quality, more affordable housing is a matter of policy choice. A key problem is Australia’s housing market is too skewed towards treating housing as a financial asset, rather than a basic human need. There is almost a universal consensus among economists, for example, that negative gearing favours the interests of investors to the detriment of others, but both major parties are scared to change the policy. One way to break the policy stalemate is to consider policies shown to have worked in other countries.
https://theconversation.com/more-affordable-housing-with-less-ho…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Share houses, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Homelessness, Housing market, International.‘This isn’t safe’: NSW renters fight twin battles against mould and landlords
Jordyn Beazley The Guardian (No paywall)Once a month Paul sends his family out of the house. With a mask on and vinegar solution in hand, he gets to work scrubbing the mould off the roof and walls of his home. It’s in his bedroom, in the kids’ bedrooms and play room, the lounge room, the kitchen. A few days after the clean, it starts to reappear and Paul spot cleans the growth until it’s time for next month’s deep clean. Mould has been an issue in his Wollongong home since he moved in with his family a year ago. “It just keeps coming back and we’re getting no help from the real estate agent or the landlord.” ... Reports of mould spreading in homes has soared amid the deluge of rain and flooding across Australia’s east coast. The issue hits renters hardest, with some landlords refusing to do anything about it. “We hear from a lot of reports from tenants who’ve been struggling with mould and report it to their landlords or agents, and they will suggest it’s the tenant’s fault,” said Jemima Mowbray, policy and advocacy manager at the Tenants’ Union of New South Wales.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/29/this-isnt…
# NSW, Rent, Health, Mould.War of words breaks out following new report into Queensland’s housing crisis
The Guardian (No paywall)The Queensland and federal governments are trading blows over the state’s housing after another report on the crisis. A new report from the Queensland Council of Social Services (Qcoss) says more than 50,000 households are currently on the waiting list for social housing. Qcoss warns the list could grow by 10,000 if the federal government proceeds with plans to scrap the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS). “Women and children are returning to domestic violence situations and living in cars with newborns because there is nowhere else to go,” Qcoss chief executive Amy McVeigh said. “We need more homes.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/28/war-of-wo…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Homelessness, Housing market, State Government, Women.