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
Australians are being asked to make tough decisions to keep a roof over their heads. What would you do?
Bridget Judd ABC (No paywall)What would you do to keep a roof over your head? The ABC has spoken to dozens of people trying to survive in Australia's property market. Use the following interactive and see how you would tackle some of the scenarios faced by many Australians. You'll make the decisions, and see what life's like for those who don't always have one. ... [And then] read Bridget Judd's article entitled: 'This is what you told us about navigating the housing market'.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-05/cost-of-living-tough-deci…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Families, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Regional NSW, Work, employment.Albanese government turns to super funds to help address social housing shortfall
Niciole Hegarty ABC (No paywall)The federal government is seeking to entice the superannuation sector to invest in social and affordable housing as part of its plan to tackle a ballooning supply shortage. Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones held a round table with peak industry group Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) this week in a bid to secure their investment. The meeting followed the Prime Minister and Treasurer last week announcing the government would make up to $575 million from the National Housing Infrastructure Facility available to encourage private investment, particularly from superannuation. Also, check out the paper from Swinburne University associate professor Christian Nygaard, released in March 2022, that found the shortage in affordable housing to be endemic across Australia. That study found the social and economic cost of that shortfall to be in the order of $676 million per annum, a figure projected to rise to $1,286,000,000 by 2036. Read his paper at: [https://www.communityhousing.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/CHIA-Everyones-Home-Wider-Benefits-Analysis-31.3.2022.pdf] Check the earlier report by Lauren Troy, Ryan van den Nouwelant and Bill Randolph of City Futures Research Centre entitled: 'Estimating need and costs of social and affordable housing delivery' at: [https://apo.org.au/node/225051]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-07/government-turns-to-super…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Federal Government, Housing market.It’s not all coffee shops and hipsters: what we get wrong about gentrification
Leslie Kern The Guardian (No paywall)Gentrification feels, sounds and looks familiar wherever you are: young hipsters transforming neighbourhoods according to a remarkably homogeneous global code of taste and style. ... [But] If we truly want to push back against gentrification, we are misplacing our energies by focusing primarily on superficial markers of taste. They are little more than symptoms of much more disruptive forms of urban change that are enriching the few at the expense of the many. The destruction or market-led “regeneration” of council housing is one such form; luxury high-rise development is another. Large-scale eviction processes, accelerated by the end of pandemic-era protections, are overtly enabling gentrification, especially in minority neighbourhoods. The rise of short-term letting through platforms such as Airbnb is helping to raise housing prices beyond the reach of even the middle classes. These processes are driven by the search for new ways to generate capital and wealth from urban space. The developers, speculators and investment firms that push these changes are able to do so because of government policy that not only allows, but often actively encourages, such developments. Whether it is through tax incentives, rezoning, or government-led “revitalisation” schemes, the state facilitates gentrification on multiple levels.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/04/coffee-sho…
# International, Eviction, Estate renewal, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Planning and development, Short-term holiday letting, Young people.The forever home
Paul Connolly The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Hours after her daughter departed, Patricia channelled her lingering agitation into cleaning.
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/the-fore…
# Australia, Home.CBA warns of mortgage lags as Reserve Bank set for another super size interest rate rise
Michael Janda and Rhiana Whitson ABC (Paywall)The Commonwealth Bank is warning of the risk a three-month mortgage lag poses to the economy if the Reserve Bank keeps raising interest rates aggressively. ... Later today it is expected to raise rates yet again, with most analysts and traders expecting another half-a-percentage-point increase to take the cash rate to 2.35 per cent — the highest it has been since early 2015. But most borrowers are only just feeling the effects of the first two rate rises, according to the Commonwealth Bank's head of Australian economics Gareth Aird. Also, read Shane Wrights's article entitled: 'RBA inflation-busting rate rises to cost $1000 a month extra on a mortgage' in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' art: [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rba-inflation-busting-rate-rises-to-cost-1000-a-month-extra-on-a-mortgage-20220905-p5bfgr.html]. Read Peter Hannam's article entitled: 'Climbing interest rates yet to bite most Australian mortgage holders, economists say' in 'The Guardian' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/sep/06/climbing-interest-rates-yet-to-bite-most-australian-mortgage-holders-economists-say]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-06/cba-warns-of-lags-as-rba-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Calls to cap rent increases as tenants feel pointy end of vacancy drought
Mark Saunokonoko 9 News (No paywall)As rental vacancies plunge to record lows, below 1 per cent in some areas, rents are climbing across capital cities and the regions. While landlords have benefited through "stunning" rent increases, UNSW City Futures Research Centre's Dr Chris Martin said renters, which include many low income households, are struggling. Against this skewed backdrop, Martin said it was time to talk rent control in Australia.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/rental-vacancies-at-record-low…
# Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Average Rents Are Increasing Less Than Expected
Tamar Pilobisian (No paywall)The rate of growth in rents has been pretty modest as the most recent count used by the Bureau of Statistics suggests that rents increased by only 1.6% in the year to June. However many governmental and non-governmental organisations say that Australian is going through renting crisis as many Aussies still struggle to find affordable and high quality houses to rent. [Hear] Ben Phillips, the associate professor at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods and the Director of the Research School of Economics’ Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and Leo Patterson Ross the Chief Executive Officer OF Tenants’Union of NSW about the current rents situation. (The Wire)
https://www.thewire.org.au/story/average-rents-are-increasing-le…
# Audio Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Nicola Sturgeon announces rent freeze for tenants in Scotland
Libby Brooks The Guardian (No paywall)Nicola Sturgeon has announced a rent freeze for public and private properties and a ban on winter evictions, in a package of measures “deliberately focused” on the cost of living crisis. Describing pressures on household budgets as a “humanitarian emergency”, Scotland’s first minister set out the annual programme for government as the Holyrood parliament met for the first time after the summer recess. The emergency legislation to protect tenants in private and socially rented homes comes only a few months after a similar proposal by Scottish Labour, to freeze rents for two years until rent controls are introduced in 2024, was voted down by SNP and Scottish Green MSPs. Also, read the article entitled: 'Rent freeze plan to tackle cost-of-living crisis in Scotland' on the BBC at: [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-62807578]
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/sep/06/nicola-sturgeon…
# International, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Families, Housing affordability, Housing market.