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
Newbie homeowners will be hit hardest by the rate hike
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Many mortgage holders should easily withstand higher interest rates, but those who entered the property market recently are more likely to feel the squeeze and could find their debt rise above the value of their homes if house prices fall further in Sydney and Melbourne.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/newbie-homeowners-will-be…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Affordable housing in Perth being held back by parking requirements, planners say
Emma Wynne ABC (No paywall)Requirements that mean new homes must have two parking spaces if they have two or more bedrooms are holding Perth back from more affordable and creative housing choices, planners say. Town planner Ben Carter said smaller developments that provided housing choice and increased density were often likely to be knocked back on parking grounds.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-01/ditching-double-garage-to…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Local Government.Start your (Sunday) jackhammers: NSW pursues extended construction hours
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The sound of drilling could become a permanent feature of Sundays in Sydney with the government considering a permanent extension of construction hours to ease pressure from staff shortages and supply chain constraints. Planning Minister Anthony Roberts told developers the government was exploring options to extend the hours as part of its commitment to build more homes; 50,000 a year across NSW for 20 years.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/start-your-sunday-jackhammer…
# NSW, Housing market, Planning and development.Building crisis hits rural communities as good seasons drive increased demand
Alys Marshall ABC (No paywall)How long would you wait for a builder? Builders across the country became very busy, very quickly when the federal government's HomeBuilder program was announced in the middle of the pandemic in 2020. For rural communities, like Goondiwindi in southern Queensland, the influx of building jobs coincided with rain that broke the most severe drought on record and brought with it good season after good season. Suddenly, farmers had money to spend. But with residential construction busier than ever, the motivation for builders to travel out of town for farm jobs disappeared.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-05-02/goodiwindi-building…
# Australia, Housing market.It’s not all nomadland: how #vanlife made mobile living a middle-class aspiration
Bronwyn Eager and Alex Maritz The Conversation (No paywall)Announce to your friends and family that you’re choosing to live in your vehicle and you’re likely to raise some concern. The 2017 book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” by Jessica Bruder – made into the 2020 film starring Frances McDormand – drew attention to the hundreds of thousands of Americans living itinerant lifestyles due to poverty and insecure employment. But not everyone choosing to live in a van is doing so out of desperation.
https://theconversation.com/its-not-all-nomadland-how-vanlife-ma…
# Australia, Land lease communities, International.Vote for Change: Take action to end older women's homelessness
(No paywall)With 405,000 women aged 45 and over at risk of homelessness in Australia, older women are speaking up, sharing their stories, and demanding political action. (Housing for the Aged Action Group)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa_p8DnqY1U&ab_channel=Housingfo…
# Video Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Homelessness, Older people, Personal stories, Women.New policies barely lighten the load when it comes to affording a home
Nicole Gurran The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)With cost of living pressures starting to bite, housing affordability has moved to centre stage of the election campaign, but the policies of the two major parties are unlikely to deliver much relief to home owners or renters because when it comes down to it, neither party wants house values to fall.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/new-policies-barely-ligh…
# Australia, Rent, Share houses, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Welfare.Labor announces policy to buy 40 per cent stake in private homes and tackle ‘housing crisis’
Anthony Galloway and James Massola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese will promise to slash the cost of buying a home for tens of thousands of Australians as part of a policy under which a Labor government would pay for up to 40 per cent of new houses. ... Similar programs also operate in Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia and are about to start operating in NSW. Also, read Tom Lowrey's article entitled: 'Labor announces "shared-equity" scheme for homebuyers ahead of Federal Election' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-01/labor-affordable-housing-shared-equity-scheme-campaign/101028354]. Read Jessica Riga's article entitled: 'Labor launches campaign in Perth with new housing pledge' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-01/federal-election-live-blog-labor-campaign-launch-albanese/101028792]. Read Katharine Murphy's article entitled: 'Labor to help low and middle income earners buy home with shared ownership scheme' in 'The Guardian' at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/30/labor-to-help-low-and-middle-income-earners-buy-home-with-shared-ownership-scheme]. ... [Also] Labor has previously promised a $10 billion fund to invest in social housing by putting money into a new Housing Australia Future Fund. ... Greens leader Adam Bandt will also reveal on Sunday that affordable housing is one of the party’s top five priorities and that it will be a key negotiating item in the event of a hung parliament. ... The Greens’ housing policy is for 1 million publicly owned, affordable homes to be built over 20 years including 125,000 under a shared equity ownership scheme, 125,000 universal-access rental homes and 750,000 new public or community houses. Check out James Massola's article in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/greens-put-affordable-housing-in-their-top-five-policy-issues-for-a-hung-parliament-20220429-p5ah8v.html] [Check out this Shelter Brief entitled: 'Shared-equity home-ownership: welfare and consumer protection issues' from July 2007 at: [https://shelternsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2007-Shared-equity-home-ownership-welfare-and-consumer-protection-issues-Robert-Mowbray-and-Nicholas-Warren.pdf].]
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/labor-announces-policy-t…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.