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
Cost of living explorer: see how prices for goods and services have changed in Australian cities
Nick Evershed The Guardian (No paywall)The skyrocketing prices of vegetables and petrol have made headlines over the past few months, with rising prices driving big increases in the cost of living in Australia. However, these aren’t the only goods and services where there have been large price increases. And despite the overall large rise in inflation, there are some things which are now cheaper than they used to be. ... We’ve brought together all the data that goes into Australia’s headline inflation figures, broken down into the most detailed goods and services categories available. This uses the most recent figures , which are for the March 2022 quarter. You can check out 'Rents', 'Electricity' and more across Australia and Sydney here.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/ng-interactive/2022/ju…
# Australia, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas.Keen to retrofit your home to lower its carbon footprint and save energy? Consider these 3 things
Nimish Biloria The Conversation (No paywall)If you’re anything like me, you’re increasingly working from home, one that was built before energy efficiency measures were introduced in Australia. With temperatures along the east coast plunging and power bills skyrocketing, heating (and cooling) our homes is an energy intensive, expensive affair. Almost 8 million homes across Australia lack sufficient insulation, use sub-par heating and cooling equipment, or are badly designed. Indeed, these 8 million pre-energy rated homes account for 18% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. And research finds 26% of Australians across all housing types can’t stay warm at least half of the time during winter. Retrofitting this housing stock to be more energy efficient is essential to successfully meet Australia’s target of cutting emissions 43% by 2030, while finding comfort in our future of intensifying climate extremes.
https://theconversation.com/keen-to-retrofit-your-home-to-lower-…
# Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Minimum habitability standards.New research reveals massive energy savings from cooler roofs
Andrew Sadauskas The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Implementing cool roofs across Sydney’s residential and commercial buildings would slash 40 per cent of the energy used to cool buildings in summer, new research from UNSW has found.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/new-research-reveals-ma…
# NSW, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Minimum habitability standards.The high-end apartments that cost $2.4 million to buy, or just $100 to rent
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)It’s the brave new world of affordable housing – a luxury apartment block where some people are forking out up to $2.4 million for units and others are paying just $100 a week. The building, the first in NSW to provide homes for private buyers living cheek-by-jowl with affordable housing and social housing tenants all under the same rooftop, has been hailed as a major step in helping solve the housing crisis. Also, read Rose Mary Petrass's article entitled: 'Mixed-tenure development in Wollongong delivers great views – equitably' in 'The Fifth Estate' at: [https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/mixed-tenure-development-in-wollongong-delivers-great-views-equitably/]
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-high-end-apartments-tha…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Regional NSW.Renters return to the office for warmth as power bills skyrocket
Gus McCubbing and Natasha Boddy (Paywall)Port Adelaide renter Shay Leach’s unit is so cold she’s considered buying a reverse cycle air conditioner in a property she doesn’t own. ... [Port Adelaide renter Shay Leach says] “Renters are supposed to have quiet enjoyment, but I don’t see how we’re doing that if we’re freezing and always looking to escape home to stay warm.” ... Joel Dignam, the executive director of community organisation Better Renting, says renters are this winter being hit by a triple whammy of unusually cold temperatures, rising power prices, and inefficient, substandard homes.“It’s striking to think that renters who work from home are enduring home temperatures that no employer would allow in an office environment,” he said. (Australian Financial Review)
https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/renters-return-to-the-office-…
# Australia, Rent, Utilities electricity water gas, Minimum habitability standards.Queensland families on brink of homelessness as calls grow for action to address housing crisis
Rachel Riga ABC (No paywall)Single mum Cheyenne Stephensen is days away from being homeless with her two young children. The 25-year-old's rental in Brisbane's outer-western suburb of One Mile at Ipswich is being sold, so she has to move out by next month. Despite having a good rental history, she's been applying for dozens of properties and can't find a new place within budget on her single-parent Centrelink income. "I had a selling agent tell me the owners wanted to sell and I literally cried because we're in the middle of a rental crisis, I can't work and I have two little kids," she said. ... She's now planning to move into her dad's two-bedroom apartment where she'll sleep on a mattress on the floor with her young kids while the property hunt continues. The mum of two's story isn't unique as Queensland grapples with low private and public rental stock, unaffordable house prices and soaring costs of living.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-18/qld-social-housing-constr…
# Australia, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Welfare, Women.Youth homelessness can be overlooked but there is a way out – as Finn’s story proves
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Young people leaving home because of family conflict are one of the biggest groups of people in the so-called “hidden homeless” population. Advocates say women and children are the most prominent victims of homelessness because of family violence, but teenagers and young adults escaping violent homes could fly under the radar because they wind up couch-surfing for extended periods. Lex Lutherborrow, the chief executive of Youth Off the Streets, said family breakdown and conflict more broadly – not necessarily including violence – was the biggest driver of youth homelessness.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/youth-homelessness-can-be-ov…
# Australia, Homelessness, Young people.Will home buyers be better off paying stamp duty or property tax?
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Swapping stamp duty for property tax could save home buyers serious money in the short term, with new modelling showing it could take up to 18 years for the tax to add up to the stamp duty bill for a $1.5 million home. ... Housing policy expert Dr Chris Martin, a senior research fellow at UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre, said stamp duty could discourage people from making otherwise beneficial moves but was not as big a barrier as it was made out to be. While stamp duty was paid by the buyer, evidence showed it comes out of the price received by the vendor, Martin said. He was concerned any savings on upfront costs would be added to a buyer’s spending budget, ultimately resulting in more money for the vendors and putting upward pressure on prices. A property tax could bring underused land to the market and encourage homeowners to move more frequently, which he supported. However, he said he was concerned that reducing upfront costs for investors could lead to more speculation and rental market churn, and he would prefer to see the property tax limited to owner-occupiers. “Having stamp duty puts a little grit in the wheel of transactions, which might actually be a good thing … like an anti-flipping tax,” he said.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/will-home-buyers-be-better-…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.