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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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Archive
Dispirited homebuyers show why Fed’s unprecedented fight against inflation is beginning to succeed
Mark Flannery The Conversation (No paywall)I've studied finance and financial markets since the 1970s, and I have never seen the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy get such prominent news coverage as it has this past year. And with good reason. ... The housing market is the sector most substantially influenced by interest rate changes, and as such, it’s a key indicator of whether the Fed’s plans are succeeding. To see why, I need only consider the experience of my son – or the many other Americans hunting for a new home at a time of rising interest rates.
https://theconversation.com/dispirited-homebuyers-show-why-feds-…
# International, Home ownership, Housing market.Climate change, rising insurance costs, food security singled out in CSIRO megatrends report
Nick Kilvert ABC (No paywall)nsurance is set to get much less affordable in Australia, with the cost of natural disasters forecast to triple over the next 30 years. The CSIRO's decadal megatrends report, published today, warns that extreme weather caused by climate change will cost the country more than $39 billion annually by 2050. ... Australia's north is already hardest hit by rising insurance premiums, with home and contents insurance costing about 1.8 times more than in the south, as of 2020.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-07-27/climate-change-in…
# Australia, Housing market.Almost financially ruined us’: The number one complaint of new home buyers in NSW
Tawar Razaghi The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Poor-quality construction was the most common complaint for new home buyers in NSW over the past three years, alongside plumbing and solar issues featuring high on the list of concerns for residents. NSW Fair Trading received about 11,000 complaints each year between 2019 and 2021. The main issue raised was the quality of construction, which included defective work, incomplete work and unsatisfactory performance.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/almost-financially-ruined-u…
# NSW, Home ownership, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.ACCC is under fire on building products as HIA calls for Senate inquiry
Cameron Jewell The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Shoddy building products, especially those imported from overseas, have risen to the top of industry concerns with the Housing Industry Association calling for a Senate Inquiry into non-conforming products and the Building Products Innovation Council furious that the ACCC wants to dumb down Australian Standards on products to bring them into line with lower international standards.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/building-construction/h…
# Australia, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.‘The council tenants weren’t going to be allowed back’: how Britain’s ‘ugliest building’ was gentrified
Oliver Wainwright The Guardian (No paywall)The east London brutalist landmark Balfron Tower was conceived as the perfect neighbourhood in the sky by its Marxist architect. Now its flats are being sold as ‘trophy properties’.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jul/26/balfron-tow…
# International, Public and community housing, Estate renewal, Housing market.Gisborne family break into empty Kāinga Ora home amid housing shortage
Matthew Rosenberg (No paywall)Desperation forced a young Tairāwhiti family to break down the door of an empty Kāinga Ora home and take up residence this month, even though utilities were disconnected. The stay was short-lived, however, after the Crown agency informed the new occupants the house was being tested for methamphetamine contamination. The couple and their two children have been given a temporary home through Kāinga Ora but a housing advocate says the issue highlights a broken system where people are forced into extreme measures to find suitable places to live. Kāinga Ora acknowledges there are not enough homes in Tairāwhiti and says it won't be pressing charges against the family. (New Zealand Herald)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/gisborne-family-break-into-empty-k…
# International, Public and community housing, Homelessness.Increasing density might be the answer to housing costs, research shows
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)The broad scale relaxation of planning rules leads to a significant increase in housing supply, new research into New Zealand planning changes has found. A similar approach could help property prices and rents in Australia fall by as much as 12.5 per cent, making housing more affordable, economists said. ... Centre for Independent Studies chief economist Peter Tulip said the research showed that if you allowed for more building, you got more building as well as a reduction property prices. “A substantial relaxation of planning restrictions would enable more construction and hence less expensive housing,” Tulip said.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/how-to-make-housing-cheaper…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, International, Planning and development.Developers banned from locking apartment residents into energy deals
Nick Toscano The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Victorian apartment developers will be banned from striking private deals with electricity retailers that lock residents into contracts covering entire buildings, under changes the Andrews government says will empower consumers to seek better offers as energy prices rise. Also, you can read this report in the Premier's media release at: [https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/ban-delivers-cheaper-energy-and-more-choice]
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/developers-banned-fr…
# Australia, Strata, Utilities electricity water gas, Landlords and agents.