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
'Scared of overpaying’: Sydney house prices have their steepest fall in three years
Tawar Razaghi The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydney’s median house price has recorded its steepest quarterly fall in three years, new figures show, and experts have forecast further falls as the downturn spreads across the city. Rising interest rates are the main reason for the market’s shift from boom to downturn, as higher mortgage repayments eat into home buyers’ budgets and chill the sentiment on the ground. But the discounts have provided some opportunities for home hunters to upgrade more easily than they could have six months ago.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/scared-of-overpaying-sydney…
# NSW, Housing market, Sydney.Auction clearance rates tumble as rising interest rates sap Australian homebuyers’ appetite
Peter Hannam The Guardian (No paywall)Australia’s real estate market continued to cool in the June quarter as rising interest rates sapped buyers’ appetite, with almost one in five homes to be auctioned in Sydney removed from the market, according to CoreLogic. Also, read Matthew Elmas's article entitled: 'Auction sales plunge as property downturn bites' in 'The New Daily' at: [https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2022/07/26/auction-housing-market/].
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/26/auction-c…
# Australia, Housing market.‘A problem for all states’: Victoria bans embedded power networks in new unit blocks
Adeshola Ore The Guardian (No paywall)Victoria will ban private electricity networks in new apartment buildings in a bid to drive down soaring household energy bills and ensure residents are not trapped in expensive deals. ... Embedded power networks serve multiple customers and are common in multi-resident complexes like apartment blocks, some retirement homes, social housing and caravan parks. They have been criticised for acting as a barrier to residents sourcing a potentially cheaper energy deal.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/26/a-problem…
# Australia, Strata, Utilities electricity water gas, State Government.Trump Calls for Moving Homeless to ‘Tent Cities’ in First D.C. Speech Since Leaving Office
Brian Bennett (No paywall)In his first speech back in Washington since losing a second term as President, Donald Trump let some big, autocratic ideas spill out for how to run America. Riffing off his written remarks, Trump said the government should “remove” thousands of homeless Americans and put them in tents on “large parcels of inexpensive land in the outer reaches of the cities” with “permanent bathrooms” and “medical professionals.” (Time)
# International, Homelessness.The risky tactic home buyers use to try to nab a bargain
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Home hunters who make lowball offers for properties they like as prices fall risk missing out on the place of their dreams. Potential buyers who read about economist forecasts of 20 per cent property price falls by next year are in some cases making bids well below a home’s price guide before realising the market has not fallen that far and another buyer has offered more. Agents warn some vendors will take offence at opportunistic offers for their family home and refuse to engage with that buyer, and that although property prices are falling as interest rates rise, the best quality homes are still attracting competition.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-risky-tactic-home-buyer…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Westpac to offer 10-minute mortgage as it eyes refinancing surge
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Westpac chief executive Peter King says a technology revamp will allow the lender to fully approve digital mortgages in as few as 10 minutes, as it prepares for a long-term shift towards digital banking, and a potential boom in refinancing. On Wednesday, the banking giant will become the latest lender to announce plans to push into digital mortgage lending, a key battleground for banks and fintechs as they try to slash approval times.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/westpac-to-o…
# Australia, Housing market.Gold Coast records biggest population growth outside nation’s capitals
Stephanie Gardiner The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A Gold Coast tourism campaign once urged visitors to “come back and play”, but new population data reveals many Australians are instead deciding to stay. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released figures on population changes in the cities and regions between 2011 and 2021, and they show Queensland’s holiday hotspot saw the biggest boom outside the capitals.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/queensland/gold-coast-records-bi…
# Australia, Planning and development.‘The most significant cost’: Is it time to limit rent increases?
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)There are renewed calls from tenant advocates for caps on rent increases in NSW as the state is in the grips of a chronic rental crisis. Experts are pleading for housing to be regulated like other essential goods and services in a bid to ease the largest cost of living pressure on renters that is crushing household budgets, and increase to the number of rentals available. In Sydney alone, house rents jumped 19 per cent since the pandemic began and outpaced annual wage growth more than five times in the past year to June. In regional NSW, tenants are facing displacement and homelessness due to rents spiking 30 per cent since 2020, outstripping average annual wage growth up to seven times in the past year in the hardest-hit council areas. ... At the heart of the problem is a chronic shortage of housing, experts agreed, but they said until that is addressed a cap on rent hikes would help alleviate the financial pressure on households. ... Tenants Union NSW chief executive Leo Patterson Ross said governments had failed to increase the number of rental properties until now and rent controls would be an immediate solution to alleviate financial pressures on renters, alongside an increase in rental properties in the long term.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-most-significant-cost-i…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Families, Housing market, State Government.