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
How home buyers are spotting a motivated vendor
Melissa Heagney and Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Some homeowners have become more motivated to sell their properties, with record volumes of auctions going ahead in recent weeks as sellers try to ink deals before interest rates rise, the federal election goes ahead or home price growth softens.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/how-home-buyers-can-spot-a-…
# Australia, Housing market.Why property investors should never fall in love
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)How do you spot a bad investment? There are the obvious rules, like avoiding the best house in the worst street and plunging all your cash into a property on the most exposed part of a flood plain. But the very worst decision you can make? “Buying the house you’ve fallen in love with,” says investment strategist Rasti Vaibhav.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/why-property-investors-shou…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Beyond eviction: alternative approaches to respond to NSW renting households in crisis
Riley Brooke Tenants' Union of NSW (Paywall)The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the financial stability of a large number of NSW renters, all at once, threatening a wave of potential evictions. In response, the NSW Government introduced a range of protections and supports for renting households, including at various times freezes on evictions and frameworks for rent reductions. While these protections were in many ways inadequate, the fact that there was broad community support for government intervention to sustain tenancies tells us several things. [Read on]
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/beyond-eviction-alternative-appr…
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents, State Government.Window to save ourselves from climate change 'rapidly closing', IPCC warns
Michael Slezak ABC (No paywall)The world’s climate scientists and governments have declared climate change is now a threat to human wellbeing and warned we are about to miss the window to “secure a liveable and sustainable future for all”. The finding comes in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on the impacts of climate change and how we can adapt to them. The new report found the scale of the impacts from climate change threatened to overwhelm Australia's — and the world's — ability to adapt in the coming decades, with some impacts requiring rapid and radical transformations in how we live and operate, combined with immediate and sharp cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. ... Regardless of our actions now, the report says regional and urban areas will face irreversible changes that will impact millions of people's lives, including sea level rises that will destroy and displace homes and infrastructure ... The report found if the sea level rose by 1.1m — which could happen early in the next century — up to a quarter of a million residential buildings would be exposed to inundation as well as thousands more commercial and industrial buildings. [Read on] Read Nick O'Malley's article entitled: '"Atlas of human suffering": More drought, fire and flood, less snow and coral, UN report says' in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/more-drought-fire-and-flood-less-snow-and-coral-un-report-says-20220228-p5a0cw.html] Read Adam Morton's article entitled: 'Climate scientists warn global heating means Australia facing more catastrophic storms and floods' in 'The Guardian' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/28/climate-scientists-warn-global-heating-means-australia-facing-more-catastrophic-storms-and-floods]. Also, read Alice Bell's opinion piece entitled: 'The IPCC climate report is grim – but there is still room for hope' in 'The Guardian' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/28/ipcc-climate-report-grim-hope].
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-28/ipcc-adaption-report-aust…
# Must read Australia, Climate change, Federal Government, Housing market.Single mother evicted from rental after three weeks
Abbey Halter (No paywall)“It was brutal. It was looking close to homelessness and if it wasn’t for my family and friends helping me out financially … I don’t know what would have happened.” March 2020 will go down in history as an uncertain and frightening time for most of us, but for this Canberra single mother teetering on the verge of homelessness, it was so stressful she “could barely see”. (Canberra Weekly)
https://canberraweekly.com.au/single-mother-evicted-from-rental-…
# Australia, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Personal stories.Airbnb to offer free housing to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees
Gorgina Quash The Guardian (No paywall)Airbnb has said it will offer free, temporary housing for up to 100,000 refugees from Ukraine, joining a swathe of companies offering support and donations following the Russian invasion. The home rentals platform’s nonprofit set up to provide housing relief during international crises, Airbnb.org, will partner with resettlement agencies to house Ukrainian refugees across the world. The cost of the stays will be covered by Airbnb, donors to its refugee fund and hosts offering discounted or free accommodation.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/28/airbnb-to-off…
# International, Short-term holiday letting.Poverty fell during first year of COVID but has now increased
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Hundreds of thousands of Australians who escaped poverty through the early stages of the COVID-19 recession due to government support have returned to a financially precarious position even as the economy has strengthened. Research headed by the University of NSW and released on Wednesday reveals the coronavirus supplement and the JobKeeper program were key factors in pushing the proportion of Australians living in poverty below 10 per cent. It had been 11.8 per cent in 2019. But the end of JobKeeper and the supplement, despite a $25-a-week increase in the base JobSeeker payment, has seen the proportion of Australians living in poverty rise to 14 per cent, or more than 3.8 million people. Read ACOSS's media release with a link to the full report at: [https://www.acoss.org.au/media-releases/?media_release=new-acoss-and-unsw-sydney-report-shows-how-poverty-and-inequality-were-dramatically-reduced-in-2020-but-have-increased-ever-since]
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/poverty-fell-through-the…
# Hot topic Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Welfare, Work, employment.Indigenous Australians face considerable barriers to achieving successful housing outcomes
Megan Moskos, Linda Isherwood, Michael Dockery, Emma Baker and Ngoc Thien Anh Pham AHURI (No paywall)AHURI News ... This research examines the characteristics of successful tenancies for Indigenous people to understand ‘what works’ for securing successful housing outcomes. It explores the successful initiatives in sustaining tenancies for Indigenous people and what particular elements contribute to this success, including for different types of housing—private and social housing, and across different locations—urban, rural and remote. You will find a helpful link at: [https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/374]
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/news/Indigenous-Australians-fa…
# Research alert Australia, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Rent.