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
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.Maggie's renting story: Living in and Leaving Affordable Housing
Maggie Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Maggie has lived in an Affordable Housing apartment with their partner and children for three-and-a-half years. They're about to move out, into a property they'll be privately renting from some family members. Maggie has given us permission to republish their tweet thread as a guest blog for This Rented Life. See Riley's explainer below for more info about 'Affordable Housing' as a specific model of rental housing.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/maggies-renting-story-living-and…
# NSW, Affordable housing, Housing market.Climate change has made old measures predicting weather events 'essentially worthless'
Penny Timms ABC (No paywall)When Jo Groves bought her property in Lismore, she worked hard to make it her own and thought she would grow old in it. Now, she's unsure when she'll be able to return and, even then, she's apprehensive about it. ... Ms Groves is one of many Australians on the east coast — and in Lismore in particular — who have been displaced after two years of record rainfall and widespread flooding. When she bought her home in late 2016 she knew flooding was a risk. "But I'm a low income earner and my choices were limited in terms of affordable housing in Lismore," she said. ... With the help of a government grant, she even elevated her home four metres off the ground. She said it was as high as was legally allowed, and it put her floor 80cm above what was known as Lismore's crucial "one in 100 year flood" level. ... But in February this year, another unprecedented flood swept through the town. Ms Groves ended up with 1.25m of water through her home — a flood more than two metres above the one-in-100-year-flood level. ... David Karoly, one of Australia's leading climate scientists, said the impact of climate change meant these measures were now "essentially worthless".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-19/climate-change-projection…
# NSW, Climate change, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Personal stories.