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
Inner-city apartments face 10 per cent price slide
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Despite the biggest economic slump since the Great Depression, job losses and no immigration, house prices are holding up relatively better than expected, but there are still concerns for high-rise apartments in Melbourne and Sydney, where prices could fall another 10 per cent.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/inner-city-apartments-fac…
# Australia, Housing market.Property prices rise in every capital city in November
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Property prices in every capital city increased over November, as the Reserve Bank cut interest rates to record lows and restrictions to limit the second wave of coronavirus outbreaks started to be lifted.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/property-prices-rise-in-…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.House prices rise nationally in November, with further gains expected for 2021, says CoreLogic
Nassim Khadem ABC (No paywall)House prices have continued to rise nationally in the face of the coronavirus-driven recession. Property analysts no longer expect 10 to 20 per cent declines in house prices, and expect that if the virus remains under control in Australia prices will rise more by early next year.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-01/corelogic-national-house-…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Double digit price falls defied, housing construction hits highest level since 2000
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydney and Melbourne property prices have defied predictions of double-digit falls, instead rising over November as low interest rates and grants for new home buyers sent housing approvals to their highest levels since the millennium began.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/double-digit-price-falls…
# Australia, Housing market.Australia’s home price growth expected to be ‘brisk’ as recession ends
Rachel Wells Domain (Paywall)Australian economists and property forecasters are predicting faster than expected growth in house prices in 2021, following news on Wednesday that Australia’s recession was technically over.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/australias-home-price-growth-expe…
# Australia, Housing market.'Good time for first-home buyers” RBA boss says, but jobless rate to stay high
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe says it's a good time for first-home buyers to get a foot on the property ladder as the economy grapples with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but warns the jobless rate will remain high for years.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/good-time-for-first-home…
# Australia, Home ownership.Affordable building: The small Tasmanian house that’s built to be moved
Jenny Brown Domain (Paywall)He’s architecturally trained and a renowned tech head at one of Australia’s young progressive practices, the multi-award winning Archier. But he got the strategy for building a first home for himself and his partner entirely the wrong way round.
https://www.domain.com.au/living/affordable-building-the-small-t…
# Australia, Housing affordability.What the superannuation wars mean for you
Ian Verrender ABC (No paywall)Housing affordability is a serious problem. But it has little, if anything, to do with superannuation. Housing prices have soared in the past 30 years because tax incentives encouraged existing homeowners to become property investors. Negative gearing and the discount to capital gains tax saw investors flood the market, to the point where two years ago, investors accounted for half of all new lending. They crowded out the market. That's reversed this year as the pandemic has scared off investors, allowing first home buyers to return. There's the evidence right there that, rather than encouraging our young to raid their retirement savings, maybe it would be best to attack the housing problem at the root cause.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-30/what-the-superannuation-w…
# Must read Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.