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
This Sydney strata nightmare started as a power struggle — then the police were called
Amy Greenbank ABC (No paywall)It's the stuff of Sydney strata nightmares: a cracking building, an expensive repair bill and an owners' meeting that got so heated the police turned up. The drama started in the basement of the Vicinity apartment towers in Canterbury earlier this month, when owners couldn't agree over who should be put in charge of managing the affairs of the troubled apartment block. The 10-storey development, which was finished in 2017 and includes 254 units, came under government scrutiny last month. Inspectors were sent in after an engineer's report, commissioned by owners, questioned the building's structural safety and documented cracks in the concrete slabs used to support the apartment towers. Within minutes of the extraordinary general meeting being opened on November 11, tempers flared. One concerned attendee called police, who warned they would shut the meeting down "if this thing does get out of hand". Video from the same meeting shows owners shouting and jeering at each other before officers arrived. The ABC understands animosity about the repairs, as well as a divide between investors and owner-occupiers has created the rift. ... Many of the strata disagreements stem from differences between the building's owner-occupiers and owner-investors. Owners living in the building say they want defects properly fixed, but some investors — who rent their apartments to tenants — are baulking at the cost of special levies and an ongoing court case against the developer, Toplace, fearing it will harm their prospects of selling.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-27/inside-sydney-strata-nigh…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Minimum habitability standards.New report calls on greater Commonwealth investment to curb public housing crisis
Heath Parkes-Hupton ABC (No paywall)The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) is calling on the federal government to step up its funding for new social and affordable housing projects to arrest a crisis fanned by ballooning rental prices across the country. A new ACOSS report to be released today has found more than 155,000 households are registered on social housing waitlists, with more than 400,000 households in need of affordable housing. You can read the ACOSS media release and find a link to the full report at: [https://www.acoss.org.au/media-releases/?media_release=states-housing-step-up-no-substitute-for-federal-action]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-29/new-report-details-austra…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Federal Government, Homelessness, Older people, Women.Soaring prices drive call for huge investment in social housing
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Think tanks, universities and the social services sector have warned Australia’s lowest income earners face a shortage of affordable housing for decades unless the federal and state governments work together on a multibillion-dollar investment in social housing.
Two separate reports from the Grattan Institute and the Australian Council of Social Service and University of NSW released on Monday said up to $20 billion needed to be sunk into low-cost housing to make up for a two-decade shortfall that is now being exacerbated by a huge increase in property prices. ... The director of UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre, Professor Hal Pawson said the states alongside the federal government had to increase their investment across the sector. “State governments generally responded well in their emergency actions to help homeless people and protect vulnerable renters during the worst of COVID. And to their credit, some have gone much further by pledging billions for short-term social housing investment,” he said. “But there is little sign of any positive legacy on the systemic reforms and Commonwealth government re-engagement is fundamentally needed to fix our housing system.” And, you will find a blog by Brendan Coates of the Grattan Institute entitled: 'A place to call home: it's time for a Social Housing Future Fund' at: [https://grattan.edu.au/news/a-place-to-call-home-its-time-for-a-social-housing-future-fund/] You can read Euan Black's story in 'The New Daily' at: [https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/11/28/social-housing-future-fund/]. You also can read Melissa Heagney's story in 'Domain' at: [https://www.domain.com.au/news/social-housing-future-fund-needed-to-address-housing-affordability-grattan-institute-1108430/?utm_campaign=strap-masthead&utm_source=smh&utm_medium=link&utm_content=pos5&ref=pos1]
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/soaring-prices-drive-cal…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Housing market, State Government.NSW to lose 3360 affordable homes: See which suburbs get hit the hardest
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)NSW will lose more than 3000 affordable homes over the next five years as the federal government abandons the Rudd-era National Rental Affordability Scheme, a new report says. A Community Housing Industry Association analysis concludes 3360 properties in NSW discounted for low-income households will revert to market rates in the private rental market by 2026.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw-to-lose-3360-affordable-home…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Federal Government.COVID-19 is a good reason to fix our bad indoor air quality — but how do we do that?
Anna Salleh ABC (No paywall)The health problems associated with poor indoor air has been estimated to cost Australia $12 billion a year. Beyond moulds and viruses, indoor air pollutants include things like toxic chemicals given out by furnishings and building materials, and CO2 breathed out by humans. As well as being a sign of bad ventilation, high CO2 levels can also give people headaches, affect concentration, cognitive abilities and productivity.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-11-25/covid-indoor-air-v…
# Australia, Health, Mould.Senate scuttles Coalition crackdown on charity advocacy work
Paul Karp and Christopher Knaus The Guardian (No paywall)The Senate has disallowed rules cracking down on charities’ advocacy work, a major defeat for the government in the penultimate sitting week of the year.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/25/senate-sc…
# Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government.Want to solve the housing crisis? Address super-charged demand
Steve Pomeroy The Conversation (No paywall)A recent news item about New Zealand’s radical new housing law and whether such measures could work in Canada implies that soaring home prices are due to a lack of supply. In its election platform, the Liberal party proposed to invest $4 billion in a municipal supply accelerator aimed at building more housing. This is the wrong approach. If policy-makers and the newly re-elected government want to improve housing affordability and the ability of young families to become homeowners, they need to turn their attention to the primary driver of price increases — super-charged demand, abetted by the sacred cow of non-taxation of capital gains on a principal residence.
https://theconversation.com/want-to-solve-the-housing-crisis-add…
# International, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.Take the slow train to Clarkefield and I’ll meet you at the community battery
Jan Fisher The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Clarkefield is in the Macedon Ranges – just under an hour away from the city of Melbourne, and even less by train – and it’s fast becoming the little town that could in its vision to create a new style of living. Under a proposed housing development, Clarkefield will become a model mixed use, walkable village and its proponents are working towards the town meeting the Department of Planning’s 20-minute neighbourhood concept of giving people the ability to meet most of their daily needs within a 20-minute return walk from home. But it’s not just about the commute, the developers also aim to make any new housing as green as possible. To this end, the town has secured a grant from the Victorian government under its Neighbourhood Battery Initiative for work on a community battery for future Clarkefield housing.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/take-the-…
# Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Planning and development.