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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
First-home buyers, experts welcome plans to phase out stamp duty
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)The NSW government proposal to replace stamp duty with an annual land tax has been welcomed by first-home buyers and experts who say it would make buying property easier with only a modest impact on prices.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/first-home-buyers-experts-w…
# NSW, Housing market, State Government.Adams Announces Plan to Fix New York City’s Growing Housing Crisis
The New York Times (Paywall)Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday unveiled a multiyear plan to address New York City's growing housing crisis, pledging to make rentals and homeownership more affordable, to help homeless people find permanent housing and to invest in the New York City Housing Authority, the largest public housing entity in the United States. If you hit a paywall, for the same story, check the link at: [https://abc7ny.com/eric-adams-nyc-housing-plan-nycha-authority/11958692/]
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/nyregion/eric-adams-housing-c…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Local Government.Low vacancy rates mean rental crisis will last
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The rental crisis is growing, with the cost of renting a capital city house soaring about 15 per cent over the past 12 months, with the cost of renting a unit jumping about 13 per cent. Data from SQM Research also show the rental vacancy rate in Sydney remained at 1.6 per cent in April, unchanged from March. It exceeded 3 per cent in April a year earlier.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/low-vacancy-…
# NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market, Regional NSW.Five years on, Grenfell’s shadow falls on every unsafe building
Stephen Brell The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)On the fifth anniversary of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire that claimed the lives of 72 Londoners, the topic of flammable cladding and building defects in general remains high on the building agenda here in Australia. The NSW Cladding Taskforce has named approximately 225 high-risk residential apartment buildings. Parramatta alone has more than 170 high-rise buildings with non-compliant combustible cladding.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/five-years-on-grenfell-s-shadow-…
# NSW, Strata, Asbestos, lead, hazardous materials, International, Minimum habitability standards.Grenfell’s wake: Perth unit owners forced to pay $1m for cladding as builders fold
Sarah Brookes The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It was a high rise death trap and a building industry failure that cost 72 people their lives. On June 14, 2017 a fire started on the fourth floor of the Grenfell Tower in London where 300 residents lived. Within minutes, the fire had raced up the exterior of the building. ... Five years on from the tragedy, Building and Energy’s March quarterly status update for private buildings shows that cladding remedial works are yet to start at nine Perth buildings, including two deemed high risk. ... Eric Soon lives in the Sundance by Psaros apartment complex in Scarborough which recently replaced the combustible cladding at a cost of nearly $1 million, borne by individual apartment owners. Sarah Brookes also writes about combustible cladding still present at Perth hospitals, unis and schools in the same paper at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/combustible-cladding-still-present-at-perth-hospitals-unis-and-schools-20220612-p5at4x.html]
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/five-years-aft…
# Australia, Strata, Asbestos, lead, hazardous materials, State Government.Aussie home values are about to tumble. We should let them
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)You have probably heard the news that national home values are forecast to fall about 15 per cent over the coming 18 months. That’s the prediction of the economists at the nation’s biggest bank, Commonwealth Bank, anyway. Sydney and Melbourne are tipped to bear the brunt of price falls. If you’re a home owner, you’d probably greet this news with some degree of trepidation. If you’re an aspiring first-time buyer, excitement, perhaps. ... Housing market adjustments hurt. But in the long run, it’s better that home values do give back some of their super-sized gains of recent years. Every Australian deserves the chance to own a home, and falling prices give younger buyers a fighting chance. Let them have it.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/aussie-home-values-a…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Young people.Freezing indoors? That’s because Australian homes are closer to tents than insulated eco-buildings
Philip Oldfield The Guardian (No paywall)As winter sets in, and temperatures plummet, it can sometimes feel as cold inside as it does outside. The reason for this is the poor thermal performance of houses in Australia. Our homes need to be rapidly improved to combat climate change, tackle energy poverty and improve our everyday lives. Minimum building standards for energy and comfort in Australian houses lag far behind many regions.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/13/freezing-i…
# Australia, Climate change, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Tony and Diane got flood insurance just before their home was inundated, but were too late
Michael Atkin ABC (No paywall)Tony Faulks and his wife Diane Carpenter are struggling to get through winter in their flood-ravaged Brisbane home. To escape the mould, they've set up a makeshift living room and kitchen in their garage. "It's like camping, to be honest, but we don't have a choice, we have nowhere else to live," Mr Faulks said. "It's getting cold. It's really cold," Ms Carpenter added. ... [But] Suncorp said it had denied Mr Faulks's insurance claim because the flood damage happened within 72 hours of him buying the policy. ... The couple is now faced with the confronting situation of fixing the damage on their own.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-13/flood-insurance-premiums-…
# Australia, .