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
Hoarders
SBS (No paywall)USA: From the outside, their houses look normal. But inside, a family is struggling to keep ahead of the insignificant things that have taken over their lives. A therapist, a professional organiser, or a cleaning crew will guide our collectors through the clean-up process and give them the tools they need to keep their behaviour in check.
# Video International, Health, Security and safety.“Heartbreaking”: 9,100 homeless suffer jobseeker payment suspensions amid recession
Luke Henriques-Gomes The Guardian (No paywall)Job agencies have suspended welfare payments 74,000 times since mutual obligations returned last month, with 9,100 people experiencing homelessness among those temporarily cut off from income support.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/oct/30/heartbreaking-9…
# Australia, Welfare, Homelessness.Price crash fears subside as mortgage holidays end for tens of thousands of home owners
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Tens of thousands of home owners are repaying their loans again after lengthy mortgage holidays and experts expect Sydney will now avoid the double-digit property price crashes that were predicted at the height of the pandemic.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/price-crash-fears-subsid…
# Hot topic Australia, Housing market, Coronavirus COVID-19, Mortgagee repossession.Renting while disabled: “Being in a wheelchair means I pay double the rent”
Alex Taylor BBC (No paywall)United Kingdom: For a generation priced out of home-ownership, renting is a key route to independence. But for wheelchair users, inaccessibility can make it an impossible dream...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/d5291d81-12d7-4216-abff-b…
# International, Disability, Home ownership, Renting culture.The Reserve Bank may cut interest rates to very close to zero — so what does that mean for borrowers and savers?
David Taylor ABC (No paywall)The Reserve Bank meets on Tuesday to decide whether or not to lower its cash rate target to 0.1 of a percentage point (from 0.25 percentage points). That takes us very close to a negative interest rate.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-31/interest-rate-cut-to-nega…
# Hot topic Australia, Housing market, Home ownership.Developer to sell 147 apartments in one hit as market cracks widen
Simon Johanson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)In a sign the coronavirus cracks in Melbourne’s central city apartment market are widening, China-backed developer Aurumstone Group has decided to sell 147 newly-completed apartments in one hit. The developer recently finished construction on its 19-level residential tower at 388 Lonsdale Street after converting an existing 12-storey office building to residential use and adding additional floors above. ... Industry sources suggest the 147 units may fetch around $70 million if the tower proves attractive to investors in the build to rent, serviced apartment, or hotel sectors.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/developer-to-sell-147-…
# Australia, Housing market, Coronavirus COVID-19.Holiday letting code delays betray long-suffering residents
Jimmy Thomson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It’s been more than two years since the NSW government first announced laws to regulate the short-term holiday letting industry. They included a proposed mandatory code of conduct to moderate the behaviour of hosts and guests. While the laws covering Airbnb and its ilk came in, somewhat belatedly, at the end of April this year, the code of conduct was nowhere to be seen ...
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/holiday-letting-code-delays-…
# Hot topic Australia, Short-term holiday letting.Aged care isn’t working, but we can create neighbourhoods to support healthy ageing in place
Melanie Davern and others The Conversation (No paywall)In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed issues and inequities across society. How we plan for ageing populations and older people is one critical issue that has been neglected for decades. ... If Gandhi is right, and the true measure of a society can be found in how we treat the most vulnerable, then Australia has a lot to learn from the 683 deaths from COVID-19 in residential aged care this year. Australia needs a radical shift to policies that better support ageing in place — that is, in their own homes — rather than relying so heavily on underfunded and poorly resourced residential aged care.
https://theconversation.com/aged-care-isnt-working-but-we-can-cr…
# Hot topic Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Older people.