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
Interest rates are going up. Here are some tips to help you manage your mortgage
Emily Stewart ABC (No paywall)The official interest rate has gone up again, this time by half a per cent. On a $500,000 loan, that's an extra $1,600 in payments per year, if the banks pass the rate hike on in full. If you're already in financial stress, here's some information about what to do. But what if you're OK for now but concerned about the future? Here are five ideas to help you manage your debt.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-08/mortgage-tips-after-rate-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Is it law that you must enforce by-laws?
Jimmy Thomson (No paywall)... in NSW, the legislation merely says that strata committees “may” issue Notices to Comply to alleged miscreants. Some people say there is a level of discretion permitted, that means strata committees don’t have to pursue by-law breaches if they don’t want to. Others say it’s an implied duty of the owners corporation and the committee.
# NSW, Strata.A new Federal Ministry announced. Who is responsible for housing?
Jemima Mowbray Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)The Albanese Labor Government this week announced their new cabinet line up, with 19 MPs and 4 Senators included in the new 23 person cabinet. Media reports have highlighted the diversity and gender balance of the new Ministry, with a record number of women in the cabinet (10), and the inclusion of two Muslim Ministers. The new Cabinet has already sat down for their first meeting - it seems they are keen to get started!
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/new-federal-ministry-announced-w…
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership, Homelessness.Here’s how rocketing rents and unaffordable house prices can be fixed
Leilani Farha The Guardian (No paywall)Leilani Farha, former UN special rapporteur on the right to housing, writes ... Two years ago, when Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, I had a strange sense of optimism. I wondered if this crisis might be one of opportunity, rather than opportunism. When the pandemic struck, another global crisis was already raging. In cities around the world, housing affordability had become an acute problem. The cost of housing had risen far beyond the rate of incomes. ... As the former UN special rapporteur on the right to housing, I had seen how tenants were struggling to pay rent, often falling into arrears and facing eviction. These conditions were partly the result of the 2008 financial crisis, which provided fertile ground for investors to mine residential real estate and extract unprecedented profits. This “financialisation” of housing unleashed a new business model. Investors would buy “undervalued” and “distressed” homes, undertake renovations and raise rents to increase a property’s valuation – maximising their investment returns in the process. ... Left unchallenged, the financialisation of housing could make cities affordable only for the affluent. While housing becomes more and more unaffordable, lower-income households will suffer further socio-economic deprivation. It’s clear we need a paradigm shift. There is a growing consensus that embracing housing as a human right is key to solving the housing crisis. The proof is 'The Shift Directives', which I am launching today in the European parliament. These are the world’s first set of international recommendations that challenge the financialisation of housing head on, using human rights standards to lead the way forward. ... Elsewhere you read: 'The Shift Directives' offer pragmatic ways to limit the financialization of housing, with guidance on matters such as strengthening tenant protections; regulating institutional investment to comply with human rights; curbing profiteering practices driving evictions and soaring housing costs; restricting short-term rental platforms like Airbnb; ensuring central and commercial bank policies are human rights-compliant; and strengthening accountability measures. Read at: [https://make-the-shift.org/the-shift-launches-worlds-first-directives-on-financialized-housing-in-european-parliament/].
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/02/rocketing-…
# Must read International, Housing market, Human rights.Managing Access to Social Housing in Australia: Unpacking policy frameworks and service provision outcomes
Hal Pawson City Futures (No paywall)Join in the next City Futures Research Centre Seminar Series from 4pm to 5pm, Friday 10 June 2022 either in person or via Microsoft Teams. You can register at this link ... This report was included in the 'Housing News Digest' on 26 May 2022. The past 30 years has seen Australia’s social housing sector capacity effectively cut by more than half. This at a time when the incidence of rental housing stress and homelessness has substantially increased. This seminar presentation draws on our newly published research that investigates the resulting effects for low income Australians seeking social housing, and the ways that state and territory governments have attempted to manage consequential pressures on this increasingly scarce resource. In particular, it attempts to unravel the apparent paradox whereby the point-in-time number of social housing waiting list applications in 2021 remained little changed from 2006, in the face of growing need for such accommodation.
https://mailchi.mp/3405ac3901ca/cfrc-newsletter-march-8664727?e=…
# Research alert NSW, Public and community housing, Housing market, State Government.Dutton wanted to show his soft side, and let slip a property humblebrag
Lucy Macken Domain (No paywall)It is a truth universally acknowledged that when well-established homeowners reminisce about their first home they either exaggerate how cheap it was or how young they were when they bought it. Incoming Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton did the latter on Tuesday when, during a press conference to try out his new, softer image, he instead slipped into property bragging. ... Dutton has bought and sold a dozen houses and apartments since he was 20.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/dutton-wanted-to-show-his-s…
# Australia, Federal Government, Landlords and agents.Kenya’s push for affordable housing is creating opportunities despite barriers
Raphael M. Kieti, Robert W. Rukwaro and Washington H.A. Olima The Conversation (No paywall)In Kenya, the right to housing is embedded in the constitution, which provides that “Every person has the right to accessible and adequate housing, and to reasonable standards of sanitation.” At the start of his second term in 2018, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta launched an affordable housing programme as one of the big four agenda pillars to promote long term economic development. The other pillars are food and nutrition security, a robust manufacturing sector and universal healthcare. Kenya needs to build 250,000 units annually for at least four years to plug its cumulative housing deficit of two million units.
https://theconversation.com/kenyas-push-for-affordable-housing-i…
# International, Affordable housing, Human rights.A circuit breaker: government backs down in fight over Victorian rough sleeper program
Luke Henriques-Gomes The Guardian (No paywall)In the first year of the pandemic, Harrison, a proud Aboriginal woman, was one of about 2,000 Victorians picked up by homelessness services and offered accommodation in hotels – part of a massive investment ensuring rough sleepers were able to safely isolate during lockdowns. The state government backed up that initiative with the From Homelessness to a Home program (H2H), a $150m investment drawing on the values of the progressive Housing First model that has gained international recognition after it was pioneered in Finland. The idea was those rough sleepers would be given a home of their own rather than sent back to crisis accommodation or the streets. And, most importantly, they’d have regular support to help maintain their new lives. ... [Jenny Smith, the chief executive of Victoria’s Council to Homeless People] was dismayed when last month’s state budget failed to continue funding the program at the current rate. ... On Friday, the government appeared to back down, telling providers and Guardian Australia it had “identified additional funding” for the program. Read the same story in Sumeyya Ilanbey's article entitled: 'Funding cut reversed for ‘brilliant’ program that houses the homeless' in 'The Age' at: [https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/funding-cut-reversed-for-brilliant-program-that-houses-the-homeless-20220606-p5argh.html]
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/04/a-circuit…
# Australia, Homelessness, State Government.