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
Just one Sydney council to make big increase to housing supply in next five years
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Just nine Sydney council areas are expected to build more homes in the next five years than they did in the past five – and only one by a significant number – underscoring the stubborn supply drought contributing to the city’s housing affordability crisis. It comes as experts questioned whether the major parties’ policies to boost supply – which Labor’s Jason Clare called “the Gordian knot” of the housing problem – would have the desired effect, and called for a bigger focus on that side of the issue, rather than purchasing.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/just-one-sydney-council-to-m…
# NSW, Housing affordability, Housing market, Local Government.The other housing tax no one’s talking about this election
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)With the pandemic property boom turning the Great Australian Dream into a nightmare for many aspiring buyers, housing affordability has been an issue in this election campaign. ... But experts say there’s another reform that could help: stamp duty. Scrapping this tax would not only improve housing affordability over time and help grow the economy, it could also be an easier sell for any federal government than changing negative gearing.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-other-housing-tax-no-on…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing market, Tax.Australia’s most sustainable houses – in pictures
Michael Sun The Guardian (No paywall)From a tiny home in Tasmania to a sprawling multigenerational manor inspired by camping, the Houses awards have chosen a shortlist of this year’s most sustainable architecture
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/gallery/2022/may/14/aus…
# Australia, Home, Housing market.WA budget to benefit property development, but leaves renters out in the cold
Holly Thompson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Western Australia’s latest budget is likely one property developers are thrilled with, but for those seeking to rent or on the waitlist for social housing the numbers are less than ideal. ... Anglicare WA chief executive Mark Glasson said with consecutive budget surpluses over $5 billion, there had never been a better time to change the rental market. “We were looking for something in the budget that supported people with rent relief. We were looking for something that said to people you are paying far too much of your income on rent, let the state help you, we’re in a good financial position, we can afford to do this until more housing stock comes online,” he said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t see that.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/wa-budget-to-b…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents, State Government.What Would Happen If We Abolished Landlords?
Rhys Thomas (No paywall)"Abolish landlords" has become a rallying call across some parts of the left. Is it really possible? ... “It’s landlordism that needs abolishing more so than landlords,” says Ben Clay, a lead organiser at Greater Manchester Tenants Union, referring to the term for the economic system where property owners lease housing to others. “Landlordism doesn’t provide good homes at low cost.”
# International, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Aged care homes will struggle to meet staff ratios as losses pile up: report
Dana Daniel The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More aged care homes are running at a financial loss as the growing home-care sector poaches workers, putting new minimum staffing standards at risk. ... The University of Technology Sydney worked with accountancy firm StewartBrown to survey providers across 1192 aged care homes and found that 63 per cent were operating at a loss, up from 52 per cent last year. The average daily deficit was $11 per resident. Only 5 per cent of surveyed residential homes had a direct-care workforce that would exceed the minimum staffing levels that both major parties are committed to bringing in next year.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/aged-care-homes-will-str…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people.He bought the house 18 months ago. Then the ocean swept it away
Richard Fausset Domain (No paywall)Like millions of other people this past week, Hien Pham marvelled at the online video of a two-storey, pea-green beach house as it collapsed into a rising sea, left to bob in the agitated surf like a giant cork. ... He had purchased the four-bedroom place in November 2020 for $275,000. ... Three prime beachfront lots are now empty on Ocean Drive, a small stretch of a charmingly scruffy Outer Banks subdivision called Trade Winds Beaches that has, to the chagrin of its property owners, become a sort of poster neighbourhood for sea-level rise – particularly since the video of Pham’s house was shared widely on social media. The once-generous stretch of beach in front of the houses has largely vanished in recent months, leaving them vulnerable to the destructive power of the Atlantic Ocean.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/he-bought-the-house-18-mont…
# International, Climate change, Housing market.Greens to unveil $7.8 billion federal election home resilience package for flood-prone regions
Lucy Stone ABC (No paywall)The Greens are set to announce a $7.8 billion property disaster resilience plan that offers homeowners up to $20,000 in matching grants to raise or flood-proof their houses. ... The one-off grants of up to $20,000 are designed to match a homeowner's contribution to lift or batten homes. It follows the second wave of flooding and heavy rain in Australia's north-east in less than three months.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-18/greens-unveil-disaster-po…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market.