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 has the RBA raised interest rates for a record 7th straight month? High inflation – and worse is on the way
Peter Martin The Conversation (No paywall)Pushing up interest rates isn’t something the Reserve Bank does lightly. ... For a borrower with a $500,000 mortgage, the increase in payments amounts to $800 per month. For a borrower on a fixed-rate loan of 2% that’s about to expire, the burden will be even greater. ... Another peculiarity is that the rent increases recorded in the consumer price index are so far below those we keep hearing about. The bureau says in the year to September, average capital city rents climbed just 2.8%, compared to the figures of 10%, and in some suburbs, 20%, quoted by real estate analysts. In part, this is because the bureau only reports capital city rents. But more importantly it is because it does its job better than real estate analysts.
https://theconversation.com/why-has-the-rba-raised-interest-rate…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.Real estate agency Harcourts reveals names, addresses possibly compromised in cyber attack
Blake Antrobus news.com.au (No paywall)A leading Australian real estate agency has suffered a cyber attack, with tenant’s names, addresses, phone numbers and photo identification potentially exposed. The Melbourne City branch of Harcourts Real Estate sent an internal email to its customers confirming a third party had accessed its rental property database last month. The agency reassured tenants the networks were now all secure and services were continuing as normal. Also, read Judd Boaz's article entitled: 'Harcourts Melbourne City real estate agency advises customers of data breach' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-02/harcourts-melbourne-real-estate-agent-stafflink-data-breach/101608270]
https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/hacking/real-estate-ag…
# Australia, Privacy and access, Landlords and agents.Landlord demands 60% increase in rent from Brisbane tenant amid Queensland housing crisis
Eden Gillespie The Guardian (No paywall)The chief executive at Tenants Queensland, Penny Carr, said rent increases were happening across the board. She said last week alone 33 people called the union asking for advice about them. Carr said that on average the increases were 35%. The largest had been for an additional $550 a week – climbing from $1,200 to $1,750. The union also saw another rent increase of 385%, she said, resulting in one person’s rent going from $105 to $490 a week. “We’re still just seeing these ridiculous increases that are unaffordable to people,” Carr said.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/03/landlord-…
# Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Cohousing is empowering people to fight back against a global housing crisis
Johannes Novy The Conversation (No paywall)The debate around how to fix the global housing crisis usually hinges on whether more market or more state is required. Some people stress the need for additional housing stock and less regulatory red tape, so that the market can create it. Others claim that stricter government measures – against ruthless developers and landlords, more rent control, and more public housing – are crucial. Increasingly, policymakers are paying attention to what lies between the public and private sectors. The United Nations’ New Urban Agenda – a key international policy framework to promote sustainable urban development – highlights the benefits of “cooperative solutions, such as cohousing, community land trusts and other forms of collective tenure”. A slew of recent community-led housing projects across Europe and beyond show how this can work.
https://theconversation.com/cohousing-is-empowering-people-to-fi…
# International, Public and community housing, Share houses, Housing market.Rough sleeping in London rises by almost a quarter, new figures reveal
Tim Clark Inside Housing (Paywall)The number of people sleeping rough in London has jumped by almost a quarter, new figures show. Data released by the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) has revealed that up to 3,628 people were sleeping rough in London for the three months between July and September this year, which is a rise of 24% from the same period in 2021. According to homelessness charity Crisis, the increase is being driven by people sleeping rough for the first time, with mounting living costs and a decline in affordable housing possibly contributing to the rise.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/rough-sleeping-in-lond…
# International, Homelessness, Housing affordability.The biggest cost-of-living increase this year — rising interest rates — is set to rise again
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)Many Australians who are struggling with soaring inflation are about to face another increase in the fastest-rising cost of living: interest rates. ... The financial markets are pricing in a slightly greater than 20 per cent chance that the RBA will revert back to a 0.5-percentage-point rate rise, having eased off to 0.25 of a percentage point in October. ... As a rough rule of thumb, for every $100,000 of debt, each 0.25 percentage point rate rise adds a bit less than $15 a month onto repayments. That's an extra $1,030 a month on a $750,000 loan.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-01/the-biggest-cost-of-livin…
# Australia, Home ownership.Defence housing plan in Sydney’s eastern suburbs sparks contamination fears
Megan Gorrey and Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Alarmed residents in Sydney’s east are pushing the Department of Defence to abandon plans to construct more than 1000 homes on contaminated land at Randwick Barracks – which locals say has been described as “Cancer Hill”. The department wants to build 62 houses for families along Bundock Street from 2023, followed a year later by 991 one-bedroom units for personnel on the eastern side of the sprawling army base.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/defence-housing-plan-in-sydn…
# NSW, Asbestos, lead, hazardous materials, Federal Government, Housing market.The Roundtable: Innovations in social housing
Julian Morrow ABC (No paywall)In Australia housing demand is outstripping supply. Many people we rely on are finding housing ownership unachievable, and their pay barely covers the rent. Homelessness is increasing and the waiting list in some regions for social housing is 10 years. In its first Labor budget in 9 years, Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced what he describes as a 'big and bold' aspiration to address the crisis. We look at the plans and explore housing strategies and models both here and overseas. (ABC Radio National)
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-roundtable/the…
# Audio Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market.