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
VIDEO: Standoff over closure of popular NSW retirement village
Bruce Mackenzie ABC (No paywall)The operators of an aged care facility in Byron Bay are seeking to shut its doors- but some remaining residents are refusing to leave.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-19/standoff-over-closure-of-…
# Hot topic, Video NSW, Older people, Planning and development, State Government.NIMBYism in Sydney is leading to racist outcomes
Awais Piracha and George Greiss The Conversation (No paywall)Residents of the affluent east and north of Greater Sydney have strongly resisted housing development in their suburbs. This NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) resistance has led to urban sprawl in areas of Western Sydney with a well-documented lack of services, infrastructure and jobs.
Recent research showed affluent Sydney communities closer to the city centre are highly influential and organised in resisting development in their neighbourhoods. The result has been a socioeconomically divided city.
Ethnic segregation is a less-talked-about aspect of this divide. Most population growth in Sydney is from non-white new migrants. Dumping them all in the city’s west, when many are suited for and employed in professional jobs, is not only economically unproductive, it also leads to an ethnically segregated city.
https://theconversation.com/nimbyism-in-sydney-is-leading-to-rac…
# Hot topic, Research alert NSW, Housing market, Planning and development, Race and ethnicity.High rental growth likely to ease from 2024 as RBA reaches end of interest rate hikes
Kate Ainsworth ABC (No paywall)High rental growth is likely to ease from next year as the Reserve Bank of Australia signals it is near the end of its current interest rate hiking cycle and inflation begins to moderate.
New analysis from property research firm CoreLogic, which explored the correlation between higher interest rates and higher rents, suggests Australia's rental market is likely to "loosen" from 2024, as inflation begins to fall and the RBA stops rate rises.
Australia's cash rate is expected to peak this year, with NAB and Westpac forecasting a terminal rate of 4.6 per cent by September, Commonwealth Bank at 4.35 per cent by August, and ANZ expecting no further rate rises beyond the current 4.1 per cent — although those figures will likely be reviewed in the wake of June inflation data next week.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-19/high-rents-interest-rates…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Planning and development.Why it's 'rubbish' to blame migrants for Australia's rental crisis
Madeleine Wedesweiler SBS (No paywall)A conservative-leaning think tank says migration and international students are to blame for Australia's rental crisis, but economists have countered this claim as misleading and poorly backed up.
The Institute of Public Affair (IPA)'s report is "rubbish" and doesn't mention key factors that have led to chronic rental unaffordability, managing director of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Michael Fotheringham, told SBS News.
"Migration is one of the ways we've actually built up our residential construction workforce and could, theoretically, help to increase the number of new properties and ease rental prices slightly," he said.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/why-its-rubbish-to-blame-mig…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Yes in my back yard! Sydney and Melbourne activists demand ‘soft density’ to ease housing crisis
Elias Visontay The Guardian (No paywall)Disparate groups frustrated by lack of affordable properties are taking the fight to Nimbys as they campaign to relax planning curbs and reinvigorate suburbs.
They are fed up with a lack of new housing, they’ve read up on the technicalities of zoning and heritage protections – and they’re coming to a local council meeting near you.
Historically low building approval rates as Australia stares down a worsening housing crisis have led to a chorus of housing activists and economists rebelling against the traditional opposition to any proposals to increase density from nimby (not in my back yard) residents.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/15/housing-c…
# Hot topic Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Housing affordability, Planning and development.Leaking sewage and no water: Victorian renters’ compensation claims stall in tribunal backlog
Cait Kelly and Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)When David*, his partner and young daughter moved to a regional Victorian property close to two-and-a-half years ago, they just wanted a tree-change. What they got was a nightmare rental experience, a hole in their bank account worth more than $20,000 and a prolonged dispute that is still without resolution.
David, who asked that his surname not be used, is just one of nearly 13,000 people waiting for his bond and compensation application to come before the Victorian civil and administrative tribunal (Vcat), where backlogs still persist and the median wait time is more than nine months.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/18/leaking-s…
# Hot topic Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Minimum habitability standards.Ten charts that explain the rental crisis in Australia
Nigel Gladstone The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Australian renters are battling an unholy trinity of soaring prices, increased competition for places and a broken housing market that limits supply and prioritises investor landlords.
So just how did the situation deteriorate so badly, and what can be done to ensure the growing number of renters are treated fairly?
More than three in 10 Australian households now rent from private landlords and the fastest growth is at the top end of the market, including luxury apartments and detached homes.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/ten-charts-that-explain-the-rent…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Rent, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Calls for property websites to list accessibility features as people with disabilities struggle to find rentals
Scout Wallen ABC (No paywall)Rachel Kayrooz needs to move from her newly marked-up rental in Queensland's south-east, but can't find anywhere accessible to go.
The community worker has functional neurological disorder (FND), which makes her susceptible to seizures, and needs a home with space to manoeuvre her walker.
It also needs to be affordable.
The rent for the home she shares with her 20-year-old daughter has gone up $110 a week, and she has had to cut back her work hours because of her condition.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-19/rental-accessibility-for-…
# Hot topic Australia, Disability, Families, Personal stories.