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
Why I turned down an MBE for services to homeless people
Gill TaylorThe Guardian (No paywall)
From the United Kingdom ... I’ve worked in homelessness services for almost 18 years – in hostels, youth services, women’s projects and for local government and charities. I’ve celebrated jubilantly each time someone has secured stable housing, and I weep every time someone loses their life on the streets. I have never once stopped caring intensely about what I do, never stopped wanting to learn and do a better job, and never once stopped believing that people affected by homelessness deserve infinitely better than what I have been able to offer them. ... The truth is, my job shouldn’t exist. Despite working 50-plus hours a week every week for nearly two decades, my efforts – and those of thousands of other dedicated practitioners and volunteers – have had almost no tangible positive effect on homelessness in this country. In the world I want to live in, housing is a right not a privilege.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/09/mbe-servic…
# International, Homelessness.A leaky share house is a world away from where I thought I’d be in my 30s
Deirdre FidgeThe Guardian (No paywall)
Like many old houses, mine often feels flimsy, ready to crumble at any moment. Previous attempts at hole-patching from tenants gone by are found throughout as large bulging clouds, optimistic layer upon optimistic layer. The house slopes so profoundly we use multiple door stoppers to prop up my furniture. I tip-toe around the kitchen as one of the wobbly beams cracks so loudly I fear that one confident stride will plunge me deep underground, where I’ll be forced to live as a mole person. And I hate worms!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/11/a-leaky-sh…
# Australia, Rent, Share houses.Buyer beware amid warnings that interest rates will rise
Shane WrightThe Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)
Buyers who have driven home prices to record highs across the country have been warned an interest rate rise may come sooner than expected as the economy continues to bounce back from the coronavirus recession.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/buyer-beware-amid-warnin…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Medical, post grad international students the first to return to NSW
Alexandra SmithThe Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)
International students studying medicine and health-related degrees and those close to finishing their studies will be given priority to return to NSW universities under a long-awaited rescue plan. Universities will foot the bill for international students to return within weeks, with 250 students to arrive each fortnight on charter flights before quarantining in special accommodation. ... Students from a range of countries, predominately China but also others including Singapore and South Korea, will quarantine in purpose-built student accommodation once they arrive in Sydney.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/medical-post-grad-internatio…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Students.Australians think our population is getting too big but can we build better dense cities?
Roje Augustin and Emma NobelABC (No paywall)
Australia is one of the least densely populated nations in the world and yet, according to the Australia Talks National Survey 2021, 35 per cent of Australians say the population is getting too big for the country to handle. Those living outside inner-metro areas, including regional and rural residents, are most likely to agree. Some of their concerns about a booming population, particularly in cities, centre on the environmental impact of population density. But that's the wrong way to look at it, according to Tim Soutphommasane, sociology and political theory professor at the University of Sydney. "Some of the greenest cities in the world are much denser than what our cities at the moment are," he tells ABC RN's Life Matters.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-11/cities-population-density…
# Australia, Planning and development.Fire, drought and real estate prices are ending the Californian dream
Kathryn Diss and Cameron SchwarzABC (No paywall)
And some Californians simply can no longer afford to live here. San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego have become expensive, with house prices growing in line with Silicon Valley's rise. The median house price in San Francisco is $1.8 million. That's even more expensive than Sydney, where the median house price is $1.3 million. Critics argue that has pushed out and priced out many middle-class Americans, created an ever-widening wedge between the state's poor and the uber-rich. It has also exacerbated the state's homelessness crisis, with an estimated 161,000 people sleeping rough. That's the highest of any state in the US.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-13/california-dream-is-becom…
# International, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market.Share-housing in your 60s: ‘Six of us wanted to do retirement in an extraordinary way’
Eve GrzybowskiThe Guardian (No paywall)
... we settled on buying a 1.6-hectare spread on Mitchells Island on NSW’s mid north coast. ... [But] to test the theory that we could live tout ensemble, we began a trial of cohabiting in a rented house in Sydney. It shouldn’t have surprised us, but potential landlords weren’t in a hurry to rent to six adults. ... We struck it lucky. Judy found a three-level waterfront house in Longueville, Tambourine Bay. We had to downsize our possessions to move in together ... [Read on]
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/13/share-housi…
# NSW, Share houses, Older people.Why some investors are choosing art over property as the real estate market heats up
Sarah CummingsABC (No paywall)
According to New Zealand auction house Webb's, a growing number of investors are choosing art over property, as the real estate market continues to soar. Head of art Charles Ninow said buyers were increasingly looking for alternative investment opportunities.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-13/tania-blanchard-artist-ar…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents.