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
Heat pumps can cut your energy costs by up to 90%. It’s not magic, just a smart use of the laws of physics
Alan Pears The Conversation (No paywall)Heat pumps are becoming all the rage around a world that has to slash carbon emissions rapidly while cutting energy costs. In buildings, they replace space heating and water heating – and provide cooling as a bonus. A heat pump extracts heat from outside, concentrates it (using an electric compressor) to raise the temperature, and pumps the heat to where it is needed. Indeed, millions of Australian homes already have heat pumps in the form of refrigerators and reverse-cycle air conditioners bought for cooling. They can heat as well, and save a lot of money compared with other forms of heating!
https://theconversation.com/heat-pumps-can-cut-your-energy-costs…
# Australia, Utilities electricity water gas.Will 7-star housing really cost more? It depends, but you can keep costs down in a few simple ways
Trivess Moore and Nicola Willand The Conversation (No paywall)The required energy-efficiency rating of new housing in Australia will increase from 6 to 7 stars from October next year. Some claim this will greatly increase housing costs. But is this true? ... House size also affects construction and running costs. Star ratings express the energy demand per square metre, so a big 7-star home will cost more to heat and cool than a smaller 7-star home. Australian homes are among the largest in the world. New home buyers should think about the number and size of their rooms and corridors if they wish to keep costs low. Other basic and low-cost things you can do include adding more insulation (ceiling, floors, walls) and external shading. Windows are also important and the cost of high-performing double-glazed windows will fall as they become the norm. Also, read Isaac Nowrooz's article entitled: 'Energy efficiency requirements for new homes will rise in October next year, but building a 7-star home doesn't have to break the bank' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-07/act-building-seven-star-energy-efficient-homes-cost/101411910].
https://theconversation.com/will-7-star-housing-really-cost-more…
# Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Building commissioner says developer Toplace falsely accused him of asking for $5m bribe
Kate McClymont The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The company of colourful Sydney property developer Jean Nassif has been accused of trying to discredit the builder commissioner by falsely claiming he asked for a $5 million bribe. The extraordinary claims were made by Building Commissioner David Chandler at a budget estimates hearing on Wednesday.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/building-commissioner-says-d…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Minimum habitability standards..id insight | September 2022 Newsletter
(No paywall)In this newsletter:
What impacts have Covid had on housing affordability, and climate on population futures? Register for our Insights Workshop to find out.
What is the Census telling us about the health status of our communities?
At last, an affordable, consistent and robust way of measuring the liveability of our places?
How can we develop local economies, linking education to address skill shortages?
What are the impacts of the demographic and economic disruptions we are experiencing at the local level? And what can be done?
What has housing affordability got to do with vacancy rates?
https://content.id.com.au/id-insight-%EF%B8%8F-vacant-dwellings-…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Home, Housing affordability, Housing market.Greater Western Sydney 'disproportionately' impacted by housing and rental stress
Cath Hanrahan ABC (No paywall)Kate Scott had to downsize to two rooms after soaring rents in Western Sydney's private rental market left her with just $89 a fortnight for other essentials. Ms Scott, a disability support pensioner, was paying $450 for a house in Carlingford in north-west Sydney, sucking up 91 per cent of her pension. "I really was dying, like $89 a fortnight. That's not enough to buy food. Not enough to do anything," she said. ... Ms Scott's dire situation forced her to downsize to a two-room granny flat at the back of a house in Baulkham Hills, which she rents for $350 a week. The landlord at her previous house increased the rent by $50 to $500 a week as soon as she moved out. ... [Billie Sankovic, CEO of the Western Sydney Community Forum, said] "There are some families and individuals that are spending in the order of 70 per cent of their income on housing costs alone, and that is more than doubled as sort of a full affordability index of around 30 per cent," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-11/western-sydney-rent-stres…
# NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market, Older people, Sydney.The Greater Cities Commission is erasing ‘Sydney’ before our very eyes
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Urban planning is a funny old thing. It’s pretty important, endlessly controversial (at least among a subset of people), easy to criticise when it’s bad and difficult to deliver even when it’s good. The Greater Cities Commission – née the Greater Sydney Commission – is a statutory body looking after macro planning of the Sydney region, and it sits awkwardly at a bureaucratic nexus between the Cities Minister, Planning Minister, the Department of Planning and dozens of local councils. The commission had already divided Sydney into three “cities”: the Eastern Harbour, Central River and Western Parklands. Earlier this year it was tasked with expanding its remit to cover Newcastle, the Central Coast and Wollongong, and so it now talks about “six cities” and “creating Australia’s first global city region”. Released on Thursday by the Premier, the GCC’s discussion paper about the six-city strategy is a glossy document that simultaneously reveals the wonder and the limits of large-scale planning.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-greater-cities-commissio…
# NSW, Planning and development, State Government, Sydney.Major housing bodies sign letter to Truss demanding urgent support for tenants facing crippling bills
Grainne Cuffe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... In a letter to Liz Truss, organised by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), more than 20 bodies across the sector have outlined several actions that she should take, including restoring Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates to at least the 30th percentile and preventing energy companies from forcing prepayment meters on people. The sector bodies, including housing associations, charities and council and ALMO representatives, wrote to express their “rapidly escalating concern” about the impact that rising living costs are having on “both residents and housing providers”.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/major-housing-bodies-s…
# International, Public and community housing, Utilities electricity water gas, Campaigns and law reform.Gold Coast property rush eases but don't expect rental market to cool anytime soon, research says
Dominic Cansdale ABC (No paywall)A "fear of missing out" may have kicked off the "extraordinary growth" of the Gold Coast's housing market, but even as the hype eases, industry figures warn rising rents are likely to continue. ... Despite rising interest rates having "taken the heat out the market", Mr Kusher said the rental market was likely to remain "really tight" with rising building costs and other "unforeseen" factors undermining the construction of new properties.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-09/how-fomo-kicked-off-gold-…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.