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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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
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Archive
How to reshape the landlord-tenant relationship
Jess McCabe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The Together with Tenants charter was launched by the National Housing Federation with the aim of resetting the relationship between housing associations and their tenants. Three years after its launch, hows it going?
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/how-to-reshape-t…
# International, Public and community housing.James's partner, Venita, suffered a stroke. Two months on, she can't leave hospital because they can't find a place to live
Fiona Blackwood ABC (No paywall)A 39-year-old stroke victim is unable to leave hospital because she and her partner have been living in an industrial shed in southern Tasmania. Venita Brown has been told she may end up in an aged care facility or a women's shelter if she and her partner, James Paul, cannot find a suitable place to live. ... They could not find a rental they could afford on a combined disability pension and carers allowance of around $1,300 a fortnight. "Most two bedrooms are $300 to $400 a week and you've got to be able to feed yourself and pay the power bill and everything else," he said. The couple moved into the shed as a temporary measure. They have put together a makeshift kitchen and there is an outdoor toilet and shower.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-15/housing-crisis-contributi…
# Australia, Rent, Health, Housing affordability, Housing market.Nature strips to bloom after council rethinks street gardening rules
Carolyn Webb The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When asked why she campaigns for the right to practise street gardening, Emma Cutting has a simple answer. “I want my four-year-old daughter to grow up around nature and I know that it’s possible to do that in the city,” says Cutting, who lives in South Melbourne.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/victoria/nature-strips-to-bloom-…
# Australia, Local Government, Planning and development.Leanne Gray has worked for 35 years. Now she can’t find a rental and lives in an unheated ‘tin can’
Melissa Heagney The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Workers in regional Victorian towns are being forced to sleep in tents, cars or caravans after a tree-change exodus from Melbourne over the past two years increased competition for rental properties to crisis levels. The rental vacancy rate is below 1 per cent in every regional area in the state except one, Domain data shows, and the demand has increased rents in every council area outside Melbourne bar one over the past year. The shortage of rental accommodation is driving key workers including hospitality staff, those in caring professions, or in service roles, and who could afford rent if they could find a long-term residence, to stay in campsites.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/leanne-gray-has-worked-…
# Australia, Land lease communities, Rent, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market, Regional NSW.Pandemic measure set to cause interest rate pain for thousands of CBA customers
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A decision to help home buyers through the depths of the coronavirus pandemic could deliver the economy a pre-Christmas blow as customers with the nation’s largest lender await a steep increase in their monthly mortgage repayments. Commonwealth Bank’s head of Australian economics, Gareth Aird, said an incredible level of tightening in monetary policy was yet to hit the real economy and would ultimately force the Reserve Bank to start cutting official interest rates again next year.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pandemic-measure-set-to-…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Tall timber buildings are exciting, but to shrink construction’s carbon footprint we need to focus on the less sexy ‘middle’
Lisa Ottenhaus The Conversation (No paywall)Developer Thrive Construct recently announced the world’s tallest steel-timber hotel to be built at Victoria Square, Adelaide. Australia has caught onto the trend of building taller in timber, with other plans for three buildings 180-220 metres high submitted in Perth and Sydney. These would more than double the current world record for a timber building. Tall timber buildings, made entirely of mass timber (layers of wood bonded together) or steel-timber and timber-concrete hybrid construction, are gaining popularity worldwide. ... Timber is a sustainable, renewable material that stores carbon while in use, and the appeal of using it in skyscrapers is clear. But I worry that focusing only on the tall means we overlook the “middle”: apartment buildings, hospitals, schools and shopping centres. Buildings like these are dominated by concrete, steel and brick, all of which are carbon- or energy-intensive materials. The “middle” is not sexy, and probably won’t make the news, but it’s where timber construction can have a significant sustainability impact.
https://theconversation.com/tall-timber-buildings-are-exciting-b…
# Australia, Climate change, Housing market.Number of vacant social homes in WA rises by 25 per cent as housing crisis continues
Jacqueline Lynch and Patti Brook ABC (No paywall)As thousands of West Australians linger on the social housing waitlist, almost 2,000 social houses across the state are empty and in need of repairs, maintenance or demolition — more than 25 per cent than last year. State government data shows there were 1,927 social houses empty in June 2022, compared to 1,514 properties at the same time last year. It is the highest number of vacant social houses since 2019.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-12/number-of-vacant-social-h…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Housing market.What can you buy for Australia’s median house price?
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)The median house price across Australia’s capital cities is now $1,065,447, and a budget that size will stretch further in some parts of the country than others. Depending on the location, and the amount of renovation required, buyers might be looking at a home just a few kilometres from a CBD, or much further afield.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/what-can-you-buy-for-austra…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.