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
Exploding the myth that increasing supply will fix Sydney’s soaring house prices
Nicole Gurrin The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Booming house prices and plummeting affordability are fuelling anxiety among Sydneysiders and bringing out the supply side “splainers”, who blame urban planning rules for high house prices because they prevent new housing supply. The idea has been around a long time. It’s stuck because it makes intuitive sense – simple supply and demand. We’re all familiar with the basics of supply and demand; when the supply of a product – such as bananas – goes down, prices go up, and vice versa. Of course, the housing market is different — in my household, when bananas are expensive, we switch to pears or mandarins, but we can’t as easily substitute our housing needs. Nor is there money to be made by hoarding fruit, unlike houses which have become financialised assets valued for their potential to grow wealth rather than places to live. Industry groups, politicians, and others ignore these differences and refuse to consider structural solutions to Australia’s housing problems. It’s easier to blame planning regulation and a lack of new supply.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/it-s-a-myth-that-increasing-supp…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing affordability, Housing market, Planning and development.‘Everything on the table’: Premier says scare campaigns won’t stop housing reforms
Tim Barlass The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Premier Dominic Perrottet said authorities should “put everything on the table” to tackle housing affordability and booming prices, following a Herald report that revealed tougher borrowing limits would put ownership out of reach for many Australians.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/everything-on-the-table-prem…
# NSW, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Planning and development, Tax, Young people.‘We are very distressed’: Waverley aged care residents fear redevelopment plans
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Aged care residents in Sydney’s eastern suburbs are “full of fear” they will be left homeless by a redevelopment that opponents say will also block views of a historic mansion and lead to the bulldozing of century-old trees. ... Waverley councillor Elaine Keenan, from the Greens, has criticised the project, saying dozens of frail and elderly long-term residents had been asked to relocate. ... “We are very distressed and frightened about our precarious situation and the future,” the resident said in an email. “We feel unsafe, and full of fear at the prospect of homelessness.” The Uniting spokesman said residents were placed in nearby Uniting services or another provider following the closure of residential aged care at the site. Residents would not be relocated from independent living units for “some time”, he said. “We have not engaged residents under the [Retirement Villages] Act since announcing the redevelopment in 2017 and clearly advised residents who subsequently entered the village on rental agreements of our intention to redevelop the site.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/we-are-very-distressed-waver…
# NSW, Eviction, Rent, Health, Heritage listings, Homelessness, Housing market, Local Government, Older people, Planning and development.Rent prices continue to rise in NSW regional towns, pushing out locals
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Rapidly rising rents across regional NSW are pricing tenants out of their communities, with the cost of renting a home jumping by more than 20 per cent in some regions as locals struggle to compete against tree-changers moving in on Sydney wages.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/regional-rental-crisis-1096796/?u…
# NSW, Rent, Housing market, Regional NSW, Young people.Rental squeeze means hundreds of teenagers need housing support on Gold Coast
Dominic Cansdale ABC (No paywall)Hundreds of teenagers on the Gold Coast need housing support due to surging rental prices and only seven crisis beds being available, a welfare group has warned. Mission Australia says the situation could worsen without increases to federal rental assistance programs and the expansion of social housing. "They're couch surfing or they're just not in a stable, safe living environment and that's really because of affordability," Gold Coast program manager Darren Stockman said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-24/hundreds-of-gold-coast-te…
# Australia, Rent, Homelessness, Young people.Tenant awarded £3,500 from London council following damp and mould complaint
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)A council tenant living with damp and mould has received a £3,500 settlement from their landlord. The settlement comes more than two years after the tenant, who lives in a four-bedroom flat in Streatham, first made a complaint to Lambeth Council about the poor conditions. A survey of the resident’s property found evidence of damp and mould in three bedrooms, as well as the hallway, kitchen and bathrooms, the tenant’s solicitor said. Evidence of water damage was uncovered in the hallway, while a broken extractor fan in the bathroom left the room with ventilation, they added.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/tenant-awarded-3500-from-lo…
# International, Public and community housing, Mould.Liveable income and stable, affordable housing are basic needs
Steve Bevington (No paywall)Covid-19 has been overall a major disaster. The pandemic has caused significant distress and upheaval around the world. The most distressing aspect of COVID-19 being, of course, the loss of human life and the health crisis that continues to generate uncertainty in our lives. Strangely, some positive measures have been taken in Australia during this time to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged people in our communities. The COVID-19 payments provided to people on income support and those who lost their jobs during the pandemic temporarily lifted almost one million Australians out of poverty. In addition, actions taken by most state governments to temporarily house people sleeping rough provided respite to many thousands of people and undoubtedly prevented many COVID related deaths. Both measures – the increase in income support and provision of housing for people experiencing street homelessness – demonstrated that we can end poverty in Australia. A secure liveable income and stable, affordable housing are the two basic needs we have as humans. (Third Sector)
https://www.thirdsector.com.au/opinion-liveable-income-and-stabl…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Homelessness, State Government.The climate crisis is global, but councils can offer local solutions
Stephen Smellie The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... At Cop26 this year, we’ll hear about diplomats and heads of state negotiating over targets, but when a river bank bursts or a storm hits, it’s our local councils that are left to clear up the mess. ... As we look to the future, the task facing council workers like me is to think how we make our homes and neighbourhoods more sustainable and more resilient, and maybe even fairer along the way. ... With the right national government support and planning, councils can use their economic power as major employers as well as owners of infrastructure, property and land, and procurers of goods and services, to be the agents of genuinely just transitions.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/22/climate-cr…
# International, Public and community housing, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Housing market, Local Government.