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
Sydney’s richest suburbs need to be higher, denser to solve housing crisis: productivity commissioner
Michael McGowan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydney’s housing affordability crunch is the result of a decades-long failure to keep pace with new developments in Brisbane and Melbourne, the NSW productivity commissioner has found, while also warning the city’s most affluent suburbs must become higher and denser to ease home prices.
On the eve of the release of a major new report on the state of housing in Sydney, the man charged with boosting productivity in NSW, Peter Achterstraat, has urged the new state government to shift focus from new developments in western Sydney to increased density in the CBD and inner suburbs.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/sydney-s-richest-suburbs-nee…
# Must read, Hot topic, Research alert NSW, Housing market, Planning and development, State Government.Family living in one room as new report shows 'extreme' rental stress gripping New South Wales
Penny Burfitt ABC (No paywall)Family living in one room as new report shows 'extreme' rental stress gripping New South Wales
She and her partner work casually and earn a lower income than the average Australian, but they have always been able to make rent in Wagga Wagga.
But when their lease of three years expired earlier this year, they emerged into an "unrecognisable" rental market.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-29/housing-crisis-corelogic-…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Families, Housing market, Personal stories.The Sydney suburbs flush with holiday rentals, but where homes are hard to find
Kate Burke and Melissa Heagney-Bayliss Domain (No paywall)The number of short-stay holiday rentals in Sydney is rising, even as the city faces a housing crisis.
Short-term rental accommodation listed on Airbnb and Stayz increased by more than a fifth over the past year, figures show, rebounding at the same time as the number of vacant rental properties plummeted – pushing up competition for homes and sending rents to record highs.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-sydney-suburbs-flush-wi…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing affordability, Housing market, Short-term holiday letting.St George Matters with Chris Minns: Freezing the Sale of Social and Public Housing
Chris Minns The Leader (No paywall)This week, I announced that my Government is freezing the sale of all social and public housing to preserve the already limited housing stock.
In a housing affordability crisis, the previous NSW Government sold off $3.5 billion worth of public housing. There is no justification for privatising and selling off public housing - especially amid a worsening housing crisis and over 50,000 applicants on the public housing waiting list.
https://www.theleader.com.au/story/8209009/st-george-matters-wit…
# Hot topic, New policy announcement NSW, Public and community housing, Planning and development, State Government.First home buyer beats 26 others to one-bedroom unit with $847,000 bid
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)A whopping 27 buyers registered to bid on a one-bedroom Newtown unit that sold for $847,000 at auction on Saturday.
A first home buyer made the winning bid for renovated apartment at 13/39 Laura Street, which had been guided at $650,000 throughout the campaign.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/first-home-buyer-beats-26-b…
# Hot topic NSW, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Gov’t rental figure for first temporary housing village revealed
Mia Armitage Echo (No paywall)The Ballina Shire Council has revealed receipt of $100,000 in land rent for its first temporary emergency housing village on the Northern Rivers.
Details of the lease between the state and local government for land at the Wollongbar Sports Fields had been kept secret from the public until this week.
When the lease was first presented to the Ballina Shire Council in April last year, council staff said its terms were to remain ‘strictly confidential’.
https://www.echo.net.au/2023/05/govt-rental-figure-for-first-tem…
# Hot topic, New policy announcement NSW, Public and community housing, Housing affordability, Planning and development.Scrapping seeker diaries to help people in temporary accommodation
Rose Jackson NSW Government (No paywall)Homeless and vulnerable people accessing temporary accommodation across the state will no longer have to prove they have been rejected from private rentals to receive support.
Our homeless community deserves our compassion and support. Forcing people to apply for rentals they know they won’t get for a tick-a-box exercise is unfair and cruel.
Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness Rose Jackson said that from 1 July people in temporary accommodation won’t need to complete a rental diary to demonstrate they are actively looking for housing.
https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/scrapping-seeker-diaries-t…
# Hot topic, New policy announcement NSW, Campaigns and law reform, DCJ Housing, State Government.Yes, we need more housing, but we also need stricter building regulations
Julian Hare The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Yes, we need more housing, there is a shortage, but what needs to happen first is the introduction of stricter building regulations to ensure that every apartment block built is free from building faults that render those apartments uninhabitable, leaving the owners in debt and homeless (“Rich suburbs must build higher: tsar”, May 31).
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/yes-we-need-more-housing-but…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing market, Planning and development, Sydney.