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
Home owners warned about May rate hike after ‘shocker’ inflation spike
Matthew Elmas The New Daily (No paywall)Home owners could be slugged with higher mortgage rates as early as next month after annual inflation rose to the highest rate in two decades. The price of consumer goods and services as measured by the consumer price index rose by 5.1 per cent over the 12 months to March 31. It was the highest rate of annual inflation recorded since 2001 and well above the 4.5 per cent that most market economists had expected. Everything from soaring freight costs to labour shortages and the war in Ukraine were blamed for the inflation spike, with prices for essentials such as petrol, housing and groceries leading the squeeze. And now the Reserve Bank is under pressure to lift rates as soon as Tuesday to cool what looks like an overheating economy.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2022/04/27/infla…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Inflation hits an extraordinary 5.1%. How long until mortgage rates climb?
John Hawkins The Conversation (No paywall)Australian consumer prices jumped an extraordinary 2.1% in the first three months of the year, the biggest quarterly jump since the introduction of the 10% goods and services tax at the start of the century. ... About a third of households have a mortgage, and face higher payments. But it will take a while for all of them to be affected.
https://theconversation.com/inflation-hits-an-extraordinary-5-1-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.‘Craziness’: Regional NSW house prices outpace Sydney’s growth
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)House prices in regional NSW have climbed at a faster rate than those in Sydney over the past year, new data shows, soaring by $500,000 in some popular coastal pockets. Median house prices in the majority of regional NSW council areas jumped 20 per cent over the year to March, Domain’s latest House Price Report revealed, with price growth fuelled by ongoing demand from sea and tree changers and low interest rates.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/craziness-regional-nsw-hous…
# NSW, Housing market.Pain coming for home owners as RBA mulls string of rate rises
Shane Wright and Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Home buyers fearful of a small interest rate rise next week face much more pain as the Reserve Bank poises for consecutive increases in the official cash rate amid signs businesses are preparing to push prices even higher.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pain-coming-for-home-own…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.Education First Youth Foyer chapter takes its housing and education model to the rest of Australia
Katherine Smyrk and Matt Dowling ABC (No paywall)By the time Sara Scott-Hitchcock was 17 she had spent time under child protection, moving in and out of residential homes, foster and kinship cares, and then she had nowhere to live. ... Not able to live with her father anymore, she became homeless. ... When she got the chance to move into Shepparton's Education First Youth Foyer, everything changed.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-28/shepparton-youth-take-hou…
# Australia, Homelessness.Buyers warned about rushing into government’s First Home Guarantee scheme
Tamsin Rose The Guardian (No paywall)First-home buyers have been warned to plan carefully before taking advantage of a federal government scheme that would allow them to secure property with a 5% deposit, at a time interest rates are predicted to rise. Experts say the First Home Guarantee scheme could be appropriate for people who plan to stay in one spot for a while and are comfortable riding out a possible property value trough, but warn it could still be risky, especially in regional areas.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/29/buyers-wa…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.Interest rates are set to start rising. What does that mean for mortgage holders and homebuyers?
Peter Hannam The Guardian (No paywall)The prospect of the Reserve Bank of Australia raising the cash rate in May has prompted a spike in queries about fixed loans from borrowers and reinforced expectations that property prices will fall, including in Melbourne and Sydney where they may already have peaked. Traders have priced in a lift in the RBA’s cash rate to 0.25% at its 3 May meeting after Wednesday’s March quarter inflation data was much higher than forecast.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/29/interest-rates-…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.How Ten Global Cities Take on Homelessness: Initiatives that work
Linda Gibb, Jay Bainbridge, Muzzy Rosenblatt and Tamiru Mammo (Paywall)Together they bring an array of government, nonprofit, and academic perspectives to offer a truly global view of the cities and individuals working in coordination to tackle homelessness ... Published by University of California. Press Plug on 'London Review of Books', Volume 43 Number 12, 17 June 2021, p24 at: [https://www.lrb.co.uk/]
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520344679/how-ten-global-cities…
# International, Homelessness.