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 brace for mortgage repayment spike
Sezen Bakan The New Daily (No paywall)Home owners could see their mortgage repayments rise by hundreds of dollars every month by February, according to analysis by RateCity. The analysis shows the average borrower with a $500,000 variable-rate loan and 25 years left on their mortgage could see their repayments rise by $303 per month if the RBA hikes the cash rate to 1.25 per cent by February.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2022/04/06/home-owne…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.The 6 million question: What will happen to Qld housing as population booms?
Cloe Read The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)South-east Queensland could expand into other regions as an influx of NSW and Victoria residents pushes the state population to 6 million as early as 2027. The population prediction by Queensland Treasury would force people out of the housing market and demand for housing would only grow, the Real Estate Institute of Queensland fears.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/queensland/the-6-million-questio…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.‘Daddy, is our home still broken?’: Mascot Towers owners in plea for help
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)In March, following pressure from Labor and apartment owners, [Fair Trading Minister Eleni] Petinos said she would extend the rental subsidies one “final time” until June 30 to allow residents to find alternative accommodation. Labor leader Chris Minns said former better regulation minister Kevin Anderson had vowed that the government would provide the owners with rental support for the duration of any legal action they pursued over the matter. He said there was still legal action on foot relating to the damaged building and, despite the change in minister, the Perrottet government needed to stand by its initial commitment to continue providing assistance.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/daddy-is-our-home-still-brok…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.Statement on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
International Union of Tenants (No paywall)The International Union of Tenants condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demand that all Russian forces leave Ukraine immediately. The attack on Ukraine is a flagrant violation of international law and of Ukraine’s territorial integrity as a sovereign and democratic state. ... As a tenant organisation we are part of the broader civil society, and we know that only a peaceful and democratic society can fully live up to the human rights, including the right to housing and the right to organise. All these values are acutely threatened by the Russian military aggression against Ukraine.
https://www.iut.nu/news-events/iut-statement-on-russias-invasion…
# International, Human rights.Dream on, Australia: budget exposes fantasy of our ‘home-owning democracy’
Nicole Gurran, Emma Baker and Peter Phibbs The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)For a government professing concern about home ownership, new supply and affordability, the measures in this week’s budget fell flat – benefitting few, largely ignoring renters, and extending underperforming existing policy. ... Australia’s roughly 8 million renters have largely been left in the cold. Our 500,000 very low-income renters will remain in rental stress, and our public housing waiting lists will remain essentially unchanged. While about 1.2 million negatively geared landlords continue to claim rental losses, pleas to increase the Commonwealth Rental Assistance subsidy (currently about $4.7 billion a year) have been ignored. There’s no real additional commitment to social housing, aside from a $2 billion extension to the affordable housing bond aggregator, extending the amount available for non-profit providers to borrow via the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation. This will support an estimated 10,000 new social housing units, against a current waiting list of about 160,000 households.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/dream-on-australia-budget-expose…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Welfare.Flood victims told to leave emergency housing in Byron Bay to make way for Easter holiday-makers
Lani Oataway and Joanne Shoebridge ABC (No paywall)At least 60 victims left homeless after the northern NSW floods have been ordered by the government to leave emergency accommodation and make way for Easter tourists. The Department of Communities and Justice has written a letter advising people to "check out" by April 4. The departments's deputy secretary Paul Vevers said the only accommodation the government could find to move people to was in Grafton, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. ... "When Easter is over, we will transport people back again, and we will put people back in emergency accommodation, and they will be able to remain there for as long as they need," he said. Also, read Gavin Butler's article entitled: 'Flood Victims Are Being Kicked Out of Crisis Housing to Make Way for Tourists' in 'Vice' at: [https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkp8nk/flood-disaster-victims-kicked-out-tourists-byron-bay-australia]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-01/flood-victims-told-to-lea…
# NSW, DCJ Housing, Homelessness.Budget favours higher earners as homelessness services slashed by nearly $40m
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)Homelessness services will be nearly $40m worse off under the federal budget and may have to shed hundreds of jobs. ... Jenny Smith from Homelessness Australia told Guardian Australia that unless it was made up by extra contributions from the states, the federal funding gap would mean between 400 and 560 jobs would probably be lost from the sector after July next year. “Homelessness services provide crisis responses, support to people trying to find a permanent home, and they provide support for people with serious mental illness,” Smith said. “This affects every homelessness service provider in the country, funded by a state or territory government. It’s breathtaking, really. That’s fewer people to answer the door, and taking support away from people who are relying on it.” This article also looks at .... For a further article on the same theme, check out Norman Hermant's article entitled: 'Concern $250 budget payment won't be enough to properly address cost-of-living pressures for low-income Australians' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-02/concern-budget-cost-of-living-payment/100957880]
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/01/budget-fa…
# Australia, Families, Federal Government, Homelessness, Women.Victoria to subsidise rent for 2,400 new homes in attempt to ease housing crisis
Benita Kolovos The Guardian (No paywall)Families earning up to $132,000 will be able to rent homes from the Victorian government as part of a scheme it says will help ease housing affordability concerns in the state. On Friday, the housing minister, Richard Wynne, will announce the affordable housing rental scheme, which will make about 2,400 homes from the government’s $5.3bn “big housing build” available to rent. In metropolitan Melbourne, rents will be set at least 10% below the median market rent of the area – and capped at 30% of the median income in Melbourne. In regional Victoria, creating extra supply is the priority for the scheme. Rents will be set at the median market rental price for that area, as well as limited at 30% of the median income in regional Victoria. Also, read the article entitled: 'New Victorian housing scheme to ease rental stress' in 'rent.com.au' at: [https://www.rent.com.au/blog/victorian-housing-scheme].
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/01/victoria-…
# Australia, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market, State Government.