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
May 2022 News
Shelter NSW (No paywall)In this month's edition:
Federal Election story – time to redefine The Great Australian Dream
Battle for Waterloo – Shelter NSW cannot support the proposal
Out and about – Western NSW Disability Housing Forum
Shelter NSW Members Meeting - Climate-ready housing
A Future Greater Sydney – opportunities of an expanding rail network
27,000 new dwellings in Parramatta – how many will be affordable?
Report launch from Regional Australia Institute – Building the Good Life
Northern Rivers reconstruction efforts
Affordable Housing Isn’t Cheap! - Shelter NSW at the Housing and Homelessness Forum
Glebe Stories
Airbnb vs New York City - Housing podcast recommendation
Healthy Homes 4 Renters – Apply to be a Winter Renter Researcher!
https://mailchi.mp/shelternsw/shelter-nsw-may-2022-ebulletin?e=9…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Climate change, Disability, Estate renewal, Home ownership, Homelessness, International, Minimum habitability standards, Planning and development, Regional NSW, Short-term holiday letting.‘Hot political real estate’: how powerful will renters be this election?
Rachel Dexter The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Renters represent a greater proportion of voters in key battleground seats this election and could be a powerful voting bloc, but say they have been largely ignored in favour of homeowners. ... In 11 of the seats with a high proportion of renters, more than half of all tenants are also experiencing rental stress – paying more than 30 per cent of their income on rent, according to a 2021 UNSW City Futures Research Centre report. ... Leo Patterson Ross, from the National Association of Tenants Organisations, was cautious when asked if renters would become as powerful a voting bloc as homeowners. “Across the country, 30 per cent would usually be enough [for a bloc]. There’s a smaller proportion of people over 70 than there are renters, for example. But the difference is that renters haven’t really seen themselves as a group. That’s not their primary identity and that’s not necessarily how they engage with politics,” he said.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/hot-political-real-estat…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Federal Government.Up them for the rent: State's new low in how to lose friends and alienate people
Robert MacDonald (No paywall)The State Government could have avoided a fight with the Real Estate Institute of Queensland and Tenants Queensland just by talking to them. ... At the heart of the disagreement is the nearly $1 billion of the rental bonds paid by Queensland tenants and held in a trust account by the Government’s Rental Tenancy Authority (RTA). The RTA is self-funded and relies on the dividend income from the trust account to run its activities. In March this year, the Government proposed a change. It now wants to fund the RTA from consolidated revenue and transfer the bond money from the RTA’s investment account into a cash account. It’s not technically a cash grab. The Government says it won’t be touching the money. So why do it?
https://inqld.com.au/insights/2022/05/09/up-them-for-the-rent-st…
# Australia, Bond, State Government.Surfside condo collapse victims reach nearly $US1 billion settlement: report
Katharine Jackson and Dan Whitcomb The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Victims of the collapse of a Surfside, Florida condominium tower that killed 98 people have reached a $US997 million ($1.43 billion) settlement with insurers, developers and other defendants in the case, the lead plaintiffs’ attorney said on Wednesday, Florida time. Nearly 100 people were killed when the 12-storey residential building near Miami Beach collapsed in 2021. Crews searched through rubble for more than a month to recover and identify victims’ remains. The agreement, which still must be finalised and approved by a Miami-Dade County judge, would compensate family members of those who died in the disaster as well as residents who were injured or lost their homes.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/surfside-condo-collap…
# International, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Gambling and homelessness in older age: hidden and overlooked, but preventable
Brian Vandenberg The Conversation (No paywall)Gambling and homelessness are clearly linked. Australians over 50 are particularly vulnerable. They have high rates of regular gambling, and are the fastest-growing age group of Australians experiencing homelessness.
https://theconversation.com/gambling-and-homelessness-in-older-a…
# Australia, Health, Homelessness.Coalition announces Super Home Buyer scheme at federal election campaign launch in Brisbane
Kathleen Calderwood ABC (No paywall)The Prime Minister has used the Liberal Party's campaign launch to announce a plan to allow first home buyers to use their superannuation to purchase a property. ... Super Home Buyer scheme, which — if the Coalition is re-elected on Saturday — would enable first home buyers to use up to 40 per cent of their super, up to $50,000, to put towards buying a home. ... Shadow Housing Minister Jason Clare described the policy as the "last desperate act of a dying government" and that people struggling the most to enter the housing market would not be helped because they typically had the lowest superannuation savings. He also said it would "add fuel to the fire" of house prices, and drive them up. Saul Eslake says the policy will only push house prices up and does nothing to address the root causes of housing affordability. Reported in Jess Davis's article entitled: 'Fears Coalition scheme allowing homebuyers to use super will raise prices, fail to address affordability' on the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-16/coalition-superannuation-housing-policy-reaction/101068810] Read Shane Wright's article entitled: 'Superannuation housing "solution" will drive up prices' in The Sydney Morning Herald at: [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/another-housing-solution-that-will-drive-up-prices-20220515-p5alha.html] Read David Crowe and Stephanie Peatling's article entitled: 'Paul Keating slams Coalition plan to allow first home buyers to dip into superannuation' in The Sydney Morning Herald at: [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/first-home-buyers-could-use-superannuation-under-coalition-government-20220515-p5alh3.html]. Read Sarah Martin's article entitled: 'Scott Morrison uses Liberal party campaign launch to set up housing battle with Labor' in The Guardian at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/15/scott-morrison-uses-liberal-party-campaign-launch-to-set-up-housing-battle-with-labor]. Read Paul Karp's article entitled: 'How does the Coalition’s super scheme for first-home buyers work and would it drive up prices?' in The Guardian at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/15/how-does-the-coalitions-super-scheme-for-first-home-buyers-work-and-would-it-drive-up-prices].
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-15/coalition-election-campai…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.Coalition unveils policy to encourage older Australians to move into smaller homes
Tom Lowrey ABC (No paywall)Pensioners, self-funded retirees and working older Australians are being offered new financial incentives to sell their family home earlier and downsize to something smaller. ... The Prime Minister will use today's Liberal campaign launch in Brisbane to unveil the new policy, aimed at freeing up larger homes in the property market for younger families. The policy has two key planks — the first is an extension of an existing tax break allowing up to $300,000 from the sale of a family home to be placed into superannuation without a penalty. The second is another tweak encouraging pensioners to sell by exempting the proceeds of the sale from the assets test for two years instead of one. ... Federal Labor has promised to match the policy, with Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese describing it as a "modest" policy. "This suggestion by the government is a practical one," Mr Albanese said. Also, read Paul Karp's article entitled: 'Coalition announces $300,000 super concession for over-55s who sell home' in The Guardian at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/15/australian-federal-election-2022-scott-morrison-anthony-albanese-coalition-liberal-party-superannuation-housing-campaign-launch]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-15/coalition-offers-incentiv…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market, Older people.After 10 years of Airbnb and short-stay rentals, is Australia ready for regulation?
Lucy MacDonald ABC (No paywall)Experts — using figures from independent advocacy and data group InsideAirbnb — say for every vacant rental, there are about 30 short-stay rentals available on Airbnb. "Non-metropolitan Australia has … always had tight rental markets," urban planner and policy analyst Nicole Gurran said. "Even a small increase — and we've seen a significant increase — in demand for housing associated with the short-term tourism market is going to exacerbate those tight rental vacancy rates." ... An Oxford Economics report found Airbnb contributed more than $10 billion to Australia's economy in 2019. But a 2019 report by America's Economic Policy Institute found that Airbnb's economic benefits were outweighed by the cost to renters. Then in 2020, global tourism ground to a halt. "COVID really showed there's a connection between the short-term rental market and rents all across Australia, and indeed across the world." [Housing researcher, Professor Peter Phibbs said the evidence was clear: "You cannot have an unregulated short-term accommodation industry and a healthy long-term rental market. Those two things just can't co-exist."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-15/short-stay-rentals-airbnb…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, International, Short-term holiday letting.