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
‘Sick of overdevelopment’: Backlash over plans to build 6300 homes in one Sydney suburb
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A Sydney council is facing a backlash over plans for buildings up to 20 storeys to cater for the city’s booming population as the area’s state MP says residents are sick of continued overdevelopment. Campsie, in the City of Canterbury Bankstown, is forecast to grow from having 24,500 residents in 2016 to more than 39,000 in 2036. More than 6300 new homes will be built to house the area’s population under the draft Campsie Town Centre master plan.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/sick-of-overdevelopment-backlash…
# NSW, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development.Will this brute of a building herald a new assault on London’s skyline?
Rowan Moore The Guardian (No paywall)Developers swoop on areas like the south bank. The onus is on planning officers to reject ugly schemes. ... There’s a bend in the Thames that gives special prominence to the buildings along it. Here, between Waterloo and Blackfriars Bridges, the south bank of the river bulges outwards, such that anything that stands there takes its place among the north bank’s array of monuments – the Houses of Parliament, Somerset House, St Paul’s Cathedral. If the elaborate British planning system has any ability to influence the quality of architecture in sensitive locations, it should be evident in a place like this. If not, then places of equal importance all over the country are in danger.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/24/londons-so…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.Inflation surge could see super-sized interest rate hike in June, economists warn
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)The latest official inflation figures are expected to be the highest since the global financial crisis, and at least one leading economist has warned it could trigger an extra large first interest rate hike from the Reserve Bank. ... "The biggest contributor is the cost of building a house, which of course includes building construction materials, construction wages, and the margins that developers are able to get," [Westpac's] chief economist Bill Evans told the ABC's RN Breakfast program. ... Westpac is expecting new house purchases to have seen a 5.4 per cent price increase just over the first few months of the year, largely driven by the federal government's HomeBuilder subsidy — grants that had previously kept inflation in this sector artificially low while stoking demand that, combined with materials and labour shortages, has sent construction costs soaring.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-26/inflation-surge-could-see…
# Australia, Housing market.‘Could stress your budget’: First-home buyers warned of hidden $11,000 sting
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)First-home buyers who scrape into the property market on a low deposit could face almost $1000 extra in monthly mortgage repayments by the end of next year as interest rates rise. First-time buyers can purchase with a 5 per cent deposit and avoid lenders’ mortgage insurance under the federal government’s Home Guarantee Scheme.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/could-stress-your-budget-fi…
# Australia, Housing market.Too little, too late: who will fix the home care crisis for Australia’s ageing population?
Christopher Knaus The Guardian (No paywall)Four years have passed since [Dr Philip Henschke's] ordeal. But, with aged care firming as a key battleground before the election, has much changed in home care since? Has access to home care – critical in managing Australia’s ageing population and relieving the strain on residential care – improved since the royal commission last year told the government to act “urgently” to fix waiting lists?
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/26/too-littl…
# Australia, Health, Housing market, Older people, Welfare.NSW government rejects Inner West boarding house safety proposal
Daniel Lo Surdo (No paywall)Inner West mayor Darcy Byrne has said that a proposal to jointly review the safety of boarding houses in the wake of the March Newtown fire has been rejected by the NSW government. Earlier this month, Inner West councillors unanimously supported a motion urgently requesting the NSW government to participate in a joint local and state review of boarding house management and regulations after a fire at a Probert Street boarding house in Newtown killed three people last month. (Inner West Independent)
https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2022/04/nsw-government-rejects-inne…
# NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Housing market, Local Government, State Government.The electorates where buyers will feel the pinch from rising interest rates
Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)First-home buyers in growing suburbs on the fringes of Sydney and Melbourne are the most at risk of struggling with rising interest rates when the Reserve Bank starts lifting the cash rate to combat inflation. The suburbs are in some of the nation’s most marginal electorates, setting up an election clash over the cost of living and which party is best to manage the economy after more than a decade without interest rate rises.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-electorates-where-bu…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.Aged care: What the major parties are promising this election
Ellen Coulter ABC (No paywall)Glen O'Driscoll has been living out of his suitcase in hotel and motel rooms for the past four months. He's a registered nurse, plugging staff shortages at aged care homes with COVID-19 outbreaks across New South Wales. "COVID has not gone away, it's still very much present in aged care," he said. Mr O'Driscoll, who's a member and former branch secretary of the nursing union, says COVID-19 has put pressure on the sector but he was seeing chronic staffing issues well before the pandemic. ... It's been more than a year since the aged care royal commission painted a damning picture of an understaffed aged care system riddled with substandard care and an underpaid and under-trained workforce. Mr O'Driscoll says for staff, nothing has changed. "[Staff] work double shifts, they work overtime, they work extended shifts, they are tired, they are worn out," he said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-27/aged-care-what-the-major-…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people, Work, employment.