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
Student housing deal sees Singaporean Wee Hur raise $567 million
Carolyn Cummings The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Singapore-based developer Wee Hur Holdings Ltd has sold down a large chunk of its student housing project in Sydney’s inner west for $567 million as part of its planned recapitalisation program that will allow funds to go towards new sites. The group is one of the largest suppliers of student housing cross the country through its Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) platform with 5662 beds across seven sites over Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra. Of that, four of the assets are already operational while the remaining three will be completed before the end of 2023.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/student-housing-deal-s…
# NSW, Housing market, International, Students.‘Harsh truth’: More than half of Sydney’s councils failing to meet housing targets
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More than half of Sydney councils have failed to meet targets to build new homes, amid concerns too many apartments are being built on the urban fringe rather than inner-city areas where people want to live. Nineteen out of 33 Sydney councils did not meet the five-year target for homes to be built between 2016 and 2021. ... Bill Randolph, a professor in the City Futures Research Centre at the University of NSW, called for more moderate-scale housing development in middle-ring suburbs and “not just in tower blocks crammed around railway stations or single lot houses crammed into fringe lot developments. ... There needs to be a major shift back to public intervention to fund really affordable housing for those who cannot afford the escalating market prices – built by the private sector but owned and managed by not-for-profits.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/harsh-truth-more-than-half-of-sy…
# NSW, Affordable housing, Housing market, Planning and development.Tamworth Country Music Festival and other events creating 'no vacancies' for rough sleepers
Kemii Maguire ABC (No paywall)Charities say people in need of temporary or emergency accommodation are being priced out of homes during major festivals, creating a spike in rough sleepers. Tamworth, in north-west NSW, has more than 50 hotels within 10 kilometres of its CBD, but most were booked out months in advance of this week's Country Music Festival. While the festival and the tens of thousands of tourists it attracts are a saviour for local businesses, homelessness organisations have warned it was their busiest time of year.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-24/homelessness-increase-dur…
# NSW, Homelessness, Housing market.The deterioration in housing affordability and its impact on living standards
Michael Keating Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)The huge increase in dwelling prices was made possible by ultra-low interest rates. Now the prospective rise in interest rates is likely to have a much bigger impact on many borrowers future living standards than previously experienced, and the demand for rental accommodation is also likely to increase faster than in the past.
https://johnmenadue.com/the-deterioration-in-housing-affordabili…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Older people, Young people.First look at the $2.5b final piece of Sydney’s Barangaroo foreshore
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A two-hectare waterfront park, campus-style offices and a new cultural venue will form the final piece of Barangaroo, as opposition grows to a proposed 21-storey tower residents fear will block views from Observatory Hill. Developer Aqualand on Sunday revealed a first look at the $2.5 billion scheme for Central Barangaroo on Sydney Harbour before the NSW Department of Planning and Environment places the most recent plans on exhibition.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/first-look-at-the-2-5bn-fina…
# NSW, Housing market, Planning and development, State Government.Interest-rate rises are coming: is it time to fix your home loan?
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When interest rates rise again for the first time since November 2010 – as most economists now expect to happen on the first Tuesday in June –it’s hard to understate what big news that will be. About a million borrowers have taken out their loans over the past decade, meaning they will never have felt the pinch of a rate hike. For many, it’s a worrying prospect and many are wondering if they should act to fix the interest rate on their mortgage.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/interest-rate-rises-are-c…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Leaked plans reveal building heights for White Bay Power Station development
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A two-hectare waterfront park and buildings up to 22 storeys high are planned for the first stage of a prized area abutting the old White Bay power station in Sydney’s inner west, internal documents show. The leaked draft plans, seen by the Herald, show the tallest towers proposed for the first stage of the area at Rozelle will be between 12 and 22 storeys and setback from the waterfront near the motorway ramps to the Anzac Bridge.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/leaked-plans-reveal-building…
# NSW, Planning and development.Houses still in high demand, apartment prices lag
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The price growth of apartments continues to lag rocketing house prices in many suburbs across Sydney and Melbourne, with the trend showing little signs of abating. The widening price gap between houses and units is a long-term trend driven by land scarcity in our biggest cities, with the difference tending to be widest between houses and high-rise apartments.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/houses-still-in-high-dema…
# Australia, Housing market.