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
Melbourne Has Been Named Australia’s Most Liveable City
Emma Joyce (No paywall)It may have endured 246 days of cumulative stay-at-home orders in 2021, but that hasn’t stopped the judges at the Economist from recognising Melbourne as Australia’s most livable city in its Global Liveability Index report. Melbourne came 10th in the report, tying with Japan’s Osaka, and the top spot was taken out by Austrian capital Vienna. Last year, Adelaide ranked the third best city to live in in the world, but only 12 months later it’s dropped all the way to 30th place. (Broadsheet)
https://www.broadsheet.com.au/national/city-file/article/melbour…
# Australia, Planning and development.For the first time, the population of capital cities has declined, with Covid the final straw for many to move to the regions
Sophie Black The Guardian (No paywall)Jake Cassar grew up in the tiny seaside village of Port Fairy in Victoria. At 18, he packed his bags for overseas and swore he would never live in a small coastal town again. It took a pandemic and a “ring of steel” lockdown policing movement in and out of Melbourne to convince him to reconsider regional life. Fast forward 18 months and he’s bought a house and started a business in Torquay on Victoria’s Surf Coast.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/02/to-the-se…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Planning and development.From Lygon Street to Springvale: How the faces of Melbourne’s suburbs are changing
Bianca Hall, Carolyn Webb and Carla Jaeger The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Last year’s census data, released on Tuesday, confirms Australia as a multicultural, migrant country. Just over half of us were either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas. But it also shows our migration patterns are changing. Migration from Mediterranean countries, including Italy and Greece, peaked in the post-war decades, while migration from South and South-East Asia including Nepal, India and the Philippines has boomed.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/from-lygon-street-to-sp…
# Australia, Families, Planning and development, Race and ethnicity.Townhouse bans and COVID booms: Brisbane’s missing housing strategy
Matt Dennien The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Brisbane’s backyards were in trouble. That was the line from the country’s largest local government in 2018, when it announced plans to ban townhouses and units in low-density parts of the Queensland capital. [Read on]
https://www.smh.com.au/national/queensland/townhouse-bans-and-co…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.Moving into a retirement village? Here are some key things to consider
Rachel Lane The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)If you are thinking of moving into a retirement village, you probably have not worked out what happens after you leave. While many people know about retirement village exit fees – a complex formula of management fees, sharing of capital gain or loss, renovation costs, sales commissions and marketing fees – the other key consideration is how soon you will get your money back.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/moving-into-a-…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people.The average Sydney family can borrow $65,500 less than two months ago to bid at auction
Tawar Razaghi and Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)The average Sydney family can borrow $65,500 less to buy a home than two months ago, and that is set to worsen with further interest rate rises on the way, new modelling shows. Many first-home buyers and young families are sitting on the fence as they face increasing mortgage repayments and cost of living pressures, and economists say they may have to compromise on the quality or location of their next home.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-average-sydney-family-c…
# NSW, Families, Housing market, Sydney.Public housing development not enough to ease housing crisis in Coffs Harbour, social advocates say
Nick Parmeter ABC (No paywall)Coffs Harbour, like many regional NSW cities, is facing a housing crisis, so the announcement of a major redevelopment of an existing public housing estate earlier this year was welcome. However, the effectiveness of the project has been questioned amid news the project will add just nine new public housing residences, with the bulk of the homes built to be offered to private buyers. Under a rezoning proposal from local and state governments, the Argyll Street Estate, which currently has 127 public housing residences, will be transformed into a mixed-density project that will deliver almost 500 new homes. ... Tim Nott, secretary of the Coffs Harbour Greens, said the proposal did next to nothing to address the region's crippling housing shortage.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-01/argyll-estate-development…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Estate renewal, Home ownership, State Government.Census data released today confirms renters fastest growing tenure type.
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)The ABS 2021 Census data released today reveals the number of people renting their home has grown significantly over the last few years. .. Leo Patterson Ross, Tenants’ Union of NSW CEO, said: “The census data released today tells us renters make up over a third of all households in NSW. And yet people who rent their homes are still often left out of the conversation about how to fix our housing system. Governments need to listen to renters – about their experiences renting and their concerns. But also about what is needed to fix these problems.”
# Must read, TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, Health, Housing market, State Government.