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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Sydney first-home buyers need more than eight years to save a house deposit
Kate Burke and Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Sydney first-home buyers need more than eight years to save a house deposit, with soaring property prices and low wages growth blowing out the time it takes to save for an entry-level home.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/sydney-first-home-buyers-ne…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Housing nightmare: South Coast residents living in cars, mouldy tents and caves
Grace Crivellaro Illawarra Mercury (Paywall)The worsening crisis in regional housing is gripping the South Coast, with hundreds of people now sleeping rough ...
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/7669598/housing-nightm…
# NSW, Homelessness, Housing market, Regional NSW.‘I rang the homeless line’: How Queensland’s floods compounded a housing crisis
Joe Hinchliffe The Guardian (No paywall)St Vincent de Paul state chief, Kevin Mercer ... says the charity was seeing several hundred people seek assistance every week – a number he said was growing on a daily basis. He says his organisation is working on an estimate that 20,000 homes are affected by flooding, over an area that sprawled from Gympie south to the Gold Coast and into New South Wales. “When you look at it in the context of housing, that’s 20,000 that need housing on top of the 50,000 people we already had on the housing waiting list before the floods.” Mercer says. “So these things are just compounding into a housing crisis that we already had.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/19/i-rang-th…
# Australia, Homelessness, Housing market.Future of Luddenham in doubt as plan to build more houses blocked by builders of Western Sydney airport
Cath Hanrahan ABC (No paywall)A tiny village in Western Sydney faces a "long, slow death spiral" because the federal government corporation building the city's new airport is blocking a plan to save it, locals say. Luddenham village, population 450, is located just a kilometre from the new Western Sydney airport, set to open in 2026. Airport construction, and the new road infrastructure to service it, has swallowed many of the homes in Luddenham. It now sits in the Western Sydney Aerotropolis that will surround the new airport, in an agribusiness zone that does not permit new residential development. Two options in a NSW government plan would see land to the north of the village rezoned to allow between 550 and 1,200 new homes to be built. However, Western Sydney Airport Corporation (WSA Co), set up by the federal government to build and operate the airport, has lodged an objection to further housing in Luddenham.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-20/luddenham-village-future-…
# NSW, Federal Government, Housing market, Planning and development, State Government.One year after the aged care royal commission, families say 'nothing's changed' at a nursing home in Melbourne
Norman Hermant ABC (No paywall)Like so many people who face a decision about placing a parent into residential aged care, for Litsa Beck it was a struggle. Seven years ago her father George Poulos was living with dementia and could no longer look after himself. His family moved him into Bupa Aged Care Templestowe, in Melbourne. "I was expecting specialist dementia care. I was expecting a workforce that were highly trained," Ms Beck said. "That was my impression … that is not what I found as time went on."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-24/family-concerns-about-bup…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people.High rents in Victoria's Western District leave families with $80 a fortnight for food
ABC (No paywall)As the community development worker with the Salvation Army, every week Mark Thomas is on the road delivering food hampers throughout Coleraine, Casterton and Hamilton. ... Mr Boulder has heard about the lives of the people that he delivers food hampers to, who have told him the basic costs of living in western Victoria were now simply too high. "The cost of rent has gone up, and fuel prices have hit hard, and food prices have made it worse," Mr Boulder said. "And living costs, food prices are higher in Coleraine. "After paying rent, my clients have got about $80 left to buy food for the fortnight.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-24/families-with-80-dollars-…
# Australia, Rent, Families.Property market continues to cool as clearance rates soften
Sarah Webb Domain (No paywall)The nation’s red-hot property market has finally cooled, with soft auction clearance rates collected across the country for the second week in a row, amid reports buyer inspection numbers also dipped. Despite a strong start to the year in Sydney and Melbourne, both cities have since slid from clearance rates in the 80s to register 68.3 and 67 per cent respectively – with the national average mirroring the downward trend at 68.6 per cent.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/property-market-continues-t…
# Australia, Housing market.Sydney and Melbourne house prices running out of puff
Sezen Bakan The New Daily (No paywall)The year is still young, but there are early signs that several Australian capital cities will see a downturn in house prices by the end of 2022.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2022/03/21/house-pri…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.