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
We can’t buy back every home on a floodplain, but we can stop building for certain disaster
Chas Keys The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)What will it take for governments to take the sort of action that is needed to rein in the flood threat in NSW? With the dreadful flooding of Lismore and other parts of the Northern Rivers in February and March now followed by the third major flood on the Hawkesbury-Nepean river system within the past 16 months, the time has arrived for seriously rethinking how we deal with flooding. ... If we are serious, we will tackle the real problem with prolonged buy-backs and stronger development regulation.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/we-can-t-buy-back-every-home…
# NSW, Housing market, State Government.Governments spent $20.5b on first home buyer help that pushes up prices: report
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Australian governments spent more than $20.5 billion on first home buyer help in the past decade, which made housing affordability worse by driving up property prices and left existing homeowners richer, new research found. ... Senior Research Fellow in the City Futures Research Centre at the University of NSW and report author Dr Chris Martin said various governments in the decade to 2021 had very little to show for the billions spent. “That’s $20 billion of public monies spent into the housing system for no housing policy outcome,” Martin said. “There are lots of other ways you could spend $20 billion to get housing policy outcomes like whether it’s rent assistance, which doesn’t have the same housing cost inflationary effect, or even better spending on housing that’s going to be affordable rental for the long term,” Martin said. He said that money was wasted by making housing affordability worse, and it has benefitted existing homeowners instead. “It’s worse than a waste [of money]. It’s money that has gone into making a problem worse … and it ends up going into inflating home values,” Martin said. Also, read Gareth Hutchen's article entitled: 'Australian governments have spent $20b on assistance for first home buyers, but who has really benefited?' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-10/first-home-buyer-assistance-benefits-property-owners/101216684]
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/governments-spent-20-5b-on-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market, State Government, Tax.Mental health problems plague real estate industry, 20pc of managers walk
Ted Howes Illawarra Mercury (Paywall)Unbearable stress on real estate property managers has led to a rash of mental health problems with 20 per cent of them walking off the job in the past year, an industry boss says. The alarming figure was raised as a key point at a Real Estate Institute of NSW conference on Tuesday. REINSW chief executive officer Tim McKibben said the stress of dealing with struggling, close to homeless families, and landlords under increasing financial pressure, was taking a massive toll on the workforce.
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/7809032/stressed-prope…
# NSW, Homelessness, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Regional NSW.‘No place for them’: the rental and social housing crisis in the bush
Tom Plevey The Guardian (No paywall)The rental crisis has pushed an unprecedented number of people into the hunt for social housing in a region which has not traditionally had a problem with access to affordable homes. Lynda Townsend, homelessness manager with Tamworth Family Support Services (TFSS) in the New England region of New South Wales, says she has never seen a situation this bad. ... lderly long-term renters are also being driven out of homes, with the temptation of increased rental incomes proving too great for many landlords. This has led to a rise in 90-day evictions, where owners are asking tenants on rolling tenancies to vacate the property without having to give a reason. One 78-year-old TFSS client was given a 90-day eviction notice for the property he’d rented for 15 years when the owner decided to sell. He is now living in his car.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/09/no-place-…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Housing market, Regional NSW.They didn't get their security deposits back. Now a big L.A. landlord agrees to pay $12.5 million
Jack Fleming (Paywall)Prominent Los Angeles landlord Geoffrey Palmer has agreed to pay $12.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing his company of withholding security deposits from more than 19,000 tenants when they moved out of his apartment complexes. (Los Angeles Times) If you hit a paywall, click the link at: [https://yhoo.it/3nQ9XkZ]
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-06-23/developer-land…
# International, Bond.South-west Sydney charity getting homeless get back on their feet
Isobel Roe ABC (No paywall)Under the Australian-first project, 22 rough sleepers have been given their own apartment to rent and help finding a job. You can read more about Dignity at: [https://dignity.org.au/]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-09/south-west-sydney-charity…
# Video NSW, Public and community housing, Homelessness, Work, employment.After 50 years in Earlwood, ‘cruel’ strata bill threatens elderly couple with homelessness
Caitlin Fitzsimmoms The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)An elderly Sydney couple will be forced from their home of 50 years and face potential bankruptcy after their body corporate voted for upgrades to their building’s windows that they could not afford. Nitsa and Spiros Tzavellas, pensioners aged 78 and 81, are desperately trying to sell their three-bedroom flat before a deadline of mid-August when bankruptcy hearings will resume in court. ... Consumer advocates say the case shows why reform is needed to curb the power of owners’ corporations and strata companies who manage properties under strata title, such as apartments.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/after-50-years-…
# NSW, Strata, Tribunal NCAT, Older people.Does Building Luxury Condos Create More Affordable Housing?
Brian Hanlon, Ned Resnikoff, John Washington and Tara Raghuveer (No paywall)From the United States ... Brian Hanlon and Ned Resnikoff write that building market-rate housing lowers prices for everyone while John Washington and Tara Raghuveer argue that the private sector can’t fix itself. ... The only thing that trickled down to residents like Pat Lucas was a 30-day notice to leave her home of 17 years. ... The most important question is: How can we guarantee that every person has a permanent, safe, accessible home? The answer isn’t zoning changes; it’s social housing. (The Nation)
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/affordable-housing-deb…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market, Planning and development, Race and ethnicity.