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
Property developers fight NSW bid to make houses more energy-efficient and climate-resilient
Peter Hannam The Guardian (No paywall)Property developers in New South Wales are fighting against the introduction of a wide-ranging planning policy aimed at ensuring houses are more energy-efficient and climate-resilient, which one environment group described as “everything you could ever dream about”. Public comment closed last month on the draft Design and Place state environmental planning policy, hailed late last year by the then planning minister Rob Stokes as “NSW’s first comprehensive design policy”. It would offer “an important opportunity to reshape the look and feel of the places we live in”. ... However, Stokes was demoted soon after he released its draft and replaced by Anthony Roberts as the new planning and housing minister. Roberts’ office declined to provide a comment on the minister’s stance but it is understood he is not a supporter.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/28/property-…
# NSW, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Minimum habitability standards, Planning and development.Liberal MP’s ‘clumsy’ public housing comments expose Coalition’s broader view
Kate Shaw and Abdullahi Jama The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Victorian Liberal spokeswoman for housing Wendy Lovell’s comments this week that public housing should not be built “in the best street in Brighton” have provoked a furore. Her claim that “the children cannot mix with others” is especially alarming when you consider her oversight of the redevelopment of inner-city public housing estates, which builds private residences on public land.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/liberal-mp-s-clumsy-pub…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Planning and development, State Government.Expect rising rates on your home loan, but there are savings to be had
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)No doubt you’ve heard the news that the next official move in interest rates will be up. It’s no longer a matter of if, but simply when this will happen. It’s entirely plausible it could happen this year. In fact, that’s what most economists expect.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/expect-rising-rates-on-yo…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Federal government yet to approve additional funding package for flooded Queenslanders
Emma pollard ABC (No paywall)More than a week after the Queensland government announced a proposed package to help flood victims "build back better", the federal government has not responded to a request to split the cost.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-27/qld-floods-federal-govern…
# Australia, Housing market.Comment: Residential Tenancies and the Flood
David Heilpern (No paywall)I reckon there are some lovely landlords out there, working well with their tenants in a cooperative fashion – waiving the rent during non-occupation, writing references for alternatives, and speedily launching into repairs to get everything back to square one ASAP... I'm just not seeing them. (ECHO)
# NSW, Rent, Regional NSW.Sydney real estate agents arrested over ‘scandalous’ $2 million drug, fraud scheme
Sarah Keoghan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Three Sydney real estate agents are among six people who allegedly used the names of members of the public to rent houses to grow $2 million worth of cannabis and receive COVID-19 rent relief payments.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-real-estate-agents-ar…
# NSW, Landlords and agents.Where in Sydney are houses taking longer to sell – or being snapped up fast?
Kate Burke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The time taken to sell a house in Sydney is on the rise as buyer urgency disappears amid the increase in homes for sale and cooling price growth.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/where-in-sydney-are-houses-…
# NSW, Housing market.First-home buyers share their tips and tricks for putting in an offer
Meg Watson ABC (No paywall)You've saved a deposit for your first home! Congrats. You've done the impossible. But, unfortunately, the hard work doesn't stop there. (ABC Everyday)
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/three-first-home-buyers-on-what-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.