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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

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Key topics

Communal living is growing in Australia. Residents say it can create community and reduce cost of living

Ashleigh Barraclough
ABC (No paywall)

In a country where many don't know their neighbours, Laxmi and Dinesh Sanders want to do things differently. Ms Sanders is from a small village in Nepal, and wanted to raise her kids in a similar environment where neighbours lend each other a hand. "I want my children to have those sort of experiences, like going to neighbours and having meals together," she said. So when Mr Sanders's cousin told the couple about the Urban Coup, a co-housing project taking up an eight-storey apartment building in Brunswick in Melbourne's inner north, they leapt at the chance to buy in. "Different people have different experiences in their life, and each one is able to give that experience to the kids," Mr Sanders said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-22/communal-living-reduce-co…

# Video Australia, Public and community housing, Share houses, Families, Housing market, Older people.
 

The not-for-profit real estate agents of last resort aiming to disrupt a troubled housing market

Joe Hinchliffe
The Guardian (No paywall)

A new model of agency has emerged to assist lower-income earners and vulnerable people. ... Samantha Gatherum-Goss drives a Hyundai and lives in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. On the Sunshine Coast, Lindell Gittoes doesn’t own a car at all. They don’t live in penthouses or have luxurious lifestyles, but their success in business is not measured by the pay packets they take home. Gatherum-Goss and Gittoes manage not-for-profit real estate agencies. Theirs is a success measured by a different set of numbers – the amount of lower-income earners and vulnerable people they help shelter, the women and children whose escape from domestic violence they help fund.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/23/the-not-f…

# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents.
 

Netherlands' cardboard floating homes, Wikkelboats, could be a housing solution for areas with limited space


ABC (No paywall)

Small floating houses made out of cardboard might not be everyone's cup of tea, but they are being considered as a housing solution in the Netherlands' unused harbours. Wikkelboats — or "wrap boats" in English — used for short-term accommodation are an original addition to the Rotterdam landscape, 73 kilometres to the south-east of the country's capital, Amsterdam. The floating houses are made of 1.2-metre-long cardboard segments weighing 500 kilograms each.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-21/netherlands-cardboard-flo…

# International, Housing market, Planning and development.
 

Inquiry into homelessness for older Australians faces confronting submissions

Erin Modaro
(No paywall)

A rising rate of senior Australians experiencing homelessness has triggered a parliamentary inquiry into a housing crisis in NSW for those over 55. With the inquiry going ahead this week, a committee has heard a multitude of stories from older Australian’s who have faced insecure housing. ... CEO of TUNSW Leo Patterson Ross spoke on a panel at the inquiry in parliament, providing suggestions for interventions to give older Australians access to stable housing. The suggested interventions include the development of genuinely affordable housing, reforming NSW tenancy law to ensure greater stability and security for people who rent their homes, and providing adequate support for older people who are renters. “These interventions are not fancy, nor particularly complicated. They simply require the political will to implement” Patterson Ross said. (City Hub)

https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2022/07/nsw-inquiry-into-homelessne…

# TUNSW in the media NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, No-grounds evictions, Older people.
 

Give councils cash to help bring down housing prices: think tank

Shane Wright
The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)

Local councils would get money directly from the federal government as a reward for approving more and higher-density housing under a proposal to help poorer and younger Australians get a foothold in the property market. Centre for Independent Studies chief economist Peter Tulip said turning the federal government’s controversial Urban Congestion Fund into a program to financially support councils dealing with increasing population densities would be one way to take pressure off housing prices in major cities.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/give-councils-cash-to-he…

# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development.
 

Woman who died sleeping rough in Adelaide parklands not found for three weeks

Royce Kurmelovs
The Guardian (No paywall)

The body of a woman who died while sleeping rough in the Adelaide parklands was not found for three weeks. The 48-year-old woman, discovered by a man who knew her, was found in a tent in the eastern end of the parklands along South Terrace at 2pm on 22 May. ... The woman’s death is considered to be the twelfth death of a person sleeping rough this year known by the Toward Home Alliance, a group of services headed by Lutheran Care charged with running outreach programs to those sleeping rough around Adelaide.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/23/woman-who…

# Australia, Homelessness, Women.
 

Foreign investor crackdown to deliver $455 million windfall – but not without costs

Matthew Elmas
The New Daily (No paywall)

Fees paid by foreign investors will double under a new federal government effort to ease Australia’s housing crisis, but experts warned the benefits would be marginal and come with costs. Treasurer Jim Chalmers unveiled a $455 million crackdown on foreign investors on Friday, saying the funds would help deliver Labor’s housing agenda. “Tackling housing affordability and helping more Australians into home ownership is a significant challenge and it’s one this government takes seriously,” Mr Chalmers said in a joint release with housing minister Julie Collins.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2022/07/22/foreign-i…

# Australia, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax.
 

Housing crisis prompts NSW councils to appeal to investment property owners to switch to long-term leasing

Jessica Clifford and Melinda James
ABC (No paywall)

A New South Wales mayor will ask holiday rental house owners to consider leasing to permanent tenants in a bid to address the housing crisis. Shoalhaven Mayor Amanda Findley's move follows the success of the same tactic in the neighbouring Eurobodalla Shire, where 50 home owners have agreed to switch to long-term leasing. Ms Findley said domestic tourism had slowed down in the region because people were choosing to holiday overseas again. She said the shift was likely to have left some investment home owners without a stable income.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-22/housing-crisis-sparks-app…

# NSW, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Local Government, Short-term holiday letting.
 

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