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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
‘We don’t want it wrecked’: The fight to save a slice of Sydney suburbia
Billie Eder The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Residents in the southern Sydney suburb of Mortdale want the Georges River Council to release any updated drafts of the suburb’s master plan, which they say could turn the area into a high-rise jungle like neighbouring Hurstville.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/we-don-t-want-it-wrecked-the…
# NSW, Campaigns and law reform, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development.Property developer will raze thousands of trees despite local distress
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Thousands of trees will be bulldozed as part of a residential development in northern Sydney despite opposition from residents and a local council. Property developer Mirvac has lodged plans to build 418 apartments and houses on the old IBM site at West Pennant Hills, 20 kilometres northwest of the Sydney CBD and next to the Cumberland State Forest.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/property-developer-will-raze…
# NSW, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Local Government, Planning and development.House prices on Qld's Granite Belt record 0.5 per cent increase, defying national trend
David Chen ABC (No paywall)Queensland's Granite Belt region has gone against the grain to be one of the few areas in Australia to record an increase in house prices.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-04/southern-downs-house-pric…
# Australia, Housing market.Elliott Heads farmland to be developed into South Beach master-planned community
Johanna Marie, Lucy Loram and Russell Varley ABC (No paywall)It's one of the last remaining coastal suburbs in Queensland where you can buy a beachside block of land for under $300,000. Just four-and-a-half hours drive north of Brisbane, Elliott Heads in the Bundaberg region is known for its sweeping white sandy beaches and idyllic weather. But the seaside haven that is home to 1,160 people is earmarked to undergo a major metamorphosis that has been decades in the making.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-03/beachside-elliott-heads-m…
# Australia, Housing market.Rent-to-buy emerging as a new path to home ownership, but is it worth it?
Alexander Lewis ABC (No paywall)Many renters would be nervous about putting a nail in the wall, let alone a pool in the yard.
But Andrew Robertson has signed no ordinary contract. "We've bought the house but not bought the house," Mr Robertson said. The Gold Coast father has entered a rent-to-buy agreement, meaning if all goes to plan, he will one day own his home. If he had gone to a bank, Mr Robertson would have needed a deposit of around $150,000 to purchase the house at Pacific Pines. Instead, he paid around $36,000 to one of two rent-to-buy companies that have launched in Queensland in the past year. ... [But] an academic warns that the rent-to-buy model, billed as "new path to home ownership", is risky because prices are locked in regardless of how the market behaves. "Buyers need to be very conscious of what they are signing up for," Professor Shaun Bond from the University of Queensland's business school said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-03/rent-to-buy-mortgage-rent…
# Australia, Home ownership.Special Edition - Rent increases
Tenant News Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Tenants are already doing it tough. Lack of housing, inadequate tenancy rights, fire, flood and pandemic, have combined to create the severe rental crisis we are currently experiencing. Sadly, some landlords and agents are using this as an opportunity to push tenants even further. Getting a rent increase on top of everything else is a massive burden, but that's what a growing number of renters are now facing. In this special edition of 'Tenant News', we present several new tools we've developed to help renters who are facing an increase. Also, read Jemima Mowbray's blog entitled: 'Landlords hiking rents: what can we do?' at: [https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/landlords-hiking-rents-what-can-we-do]
https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?e=7cb9765e09&u=29c79d2825cb376…
# NSW, Rent, Campaigns and law reform.NSW’s rejection of basic accessible home standards ‘salt in the wound’ for disabled people
Stephanie Convery The Guardian (No paywall)The New South Wales government’s refusal to enforce basic accessibility standards for new homes is “salt in the wound” for people with disabilities and will force more than 1 million Australians to continue living in ill-suited dwellings, advocates say. Australia’s building ministers finalised the new national construction code (NCC) last week, which included much-lauded changes to energy efficiency standards as well as mandatory “silver” level accessibility standards, as described by Liveable Housing Australia. But Australia’s most populous state confirmed it will opt out of implementing the clauses that would require new homes to have basic accessibility features such as at least one step-free entrance, a toilet on the entry level and reinforced walls in the bathroom. These features were added to the NCC after a push from advocates highlighting the difficulties that disabled people, older people and others face in finding homes that meet their basic needs. The standards also include a walk-in shower recess and wider door frames and corridors to facilitate ease of movement. “To say that we are disappointed is an understatement,” Serena Ovens, the chief executive of the Physical Disability Council of NSW, said on Monday.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/29/nsws-reje…
# NSW, Disability, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Older people.7-star housing is a step towards zero carbon – but there’s much more to do, starting with existing homes
Gill Armstrong, Alan Pears, Margot Delafoulhouze and Trivess Moore The Conversation (No paywall)Energy-efficiency standards for new homes in Australia are being upgraded for the first time in a decade. New homes will be required to improve minimum performance from 6 stars to 7 stars under the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS). Federal, state and territory building ministers agreed on the change last Friday. The rating will also use a whole-of-home energy “budget”. This will allow homes to meet the new standard in different ways. The standard will come into force in May 2023, and all new homes will have to comply by October 2023. ... These upgrades represent a step in the right direction, but much more remains to be done to future-proof Australian homes.
https://theconversation.com/7-star-housing-is-a-step-towards-zer…
# Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.