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
Australian home prices rose a record 24% last year. That’s insane
Greg Jericho The Guardian (No paywall)In most capital cites housing affordability is about 25% worse than it was just 18 months ago. That it was expected makes it no less shocking. The huge surge in housing loans early last year always meant property prices were going to take off. But it still takes your breath away when the latest residential property price data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that prices across the nation rose a record 24% last year.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2022/mar/17/aus…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.Property prices heading for ‘break even’ point as clearance rates fall
Tawar Razaghi The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The property market is starting to return to a more normal level, with preliminary auction clearance rates edging lower on the weekend. At the height of the pandemic-driven property boom, the majority of homes were selling under the hammer for well above reserves, as buyers fought it out for the limited stock on the market.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/property-prices-heading-for…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Brace yourself Sydney for more transport chaos
Christopher Standen The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The extreme weather of the past fortnight has exposed the vulnerabilities in Sydney’s transport system. Roads flooded, horrendous traffic and numerous crashes. Ongoing public transport delays and cancellations. Essential workers struggling to get to work. And this chaos is just a taste of things to come. With global heating, storms and floods set to become more frequent and intense, one has to ask if Sydney’s transport system will cope, or if we have to resign ourselves to worsening travel disruption.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/brace-yourself-sydney-for-mo…
# NSW, Climate change, Planning and development, Work, employment.Number of Northern Irish households in temporary accommodation up 74%
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)From Northern Island ... The latest figures on homelessness, released by the Department for Communities last week, show that in February 2022, 3,596 households were in temporary accommodation, compared to 2,065 in January 2019. The majority of households (58%) had been living in temporary accommodation for less than a year, but 5% had been there for five or more years. The number of children in temporary accommodation has increased by 55% from 2,433 in January 2019, to 3,763 in February 2022. Between July and December 2021, 7,404 households presented as homeless.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/number-of-northern-iri…
# International, Homelessness.Property prices rose by 4.7 per cent across Australia's eight capital cities in the last quarter
ABC (No paywall)Property prices across Australia's eight capital cities have risen by 4.7 per cent over the previous quarter, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Brisbane experienced the biggest rise, with property prices in the Queensland capital rising by 9.6 per cent between September and December 2021. Prices grew by 6.8 per cent in Adelaide, 6.5 per cent in Hobart, and 6.4 per cent in Canberra. Sydney property prices rose by 4.1 per cent for the quarter, Melbourne by 3.9 per cent, Perth by 2.9 per cent, and Darwin by 1.5 per cent. Property prices across the eight capital cities have now risen by 23.7 per cent over the last 12 months.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-15/australia-capital-city-sy…
# Australia, Housing market.Guidance on evacuation written without input from disability groups, inquiry hears
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Government-endorsed guidance that said it was “usually unrealistic” to provide evacuation plans for disabled residents of blocks of flats was written without input from any disability rights experts or representatives of disabled people, the [Grenfell Tower] inquiry heard today.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/guidance-on-evacuation-writ…
# International, Public and community housing, Disability.Value of Australia’s housing market swells
Colin Brinsden The New Daily (No paywall)The value of Australia’s housing market now stands at close to $10 trillion after growing at the fastest annual pace in at least 18 years during 2021. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said residential property prices rose 23.7 per cent through 2021, the strongest annual growth since its records began in the September quarter of 2003. It said the value of residential dwellings has risen by just over $2 trillion since the December quarter 2020. In the December quarter of last year, the mean price of residential dwellings in Australia was $920,100, up from $876,100 in the September quarter 2021.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2022/03/15/value-aus…
# Australia, Housing market.‘Unbelievable boom’: Property wealth skyrockets by $2 trillion. Here’s how to cash in
Matthew Elmas The New Daily (No paywall)Home owners are being urged to revalue their properties after new data revealed a massive surge in housing wealth over the past year. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday that the value of Australia’s property portfolio skyrocketed to $9.9 trillion in 2021, driven by a record-shattering 23.7 per cent annual rise in property prices. The collective wealth of home owners increased by $2 trillion in just one year alone – a sum 30 per cent larger than the annual output of the entire Australian economy. Financial experts are consequently advising Australians to revalue their property to cash in on these paper gains, with the potential for a cheaper mortgage. Doing so could save home owners anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars a year.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2022/03/15/property-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.