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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
‘I don’t want to live alone’: co-living, community and affordable housing
Katie Cunningham The Guardian (No paywall)Almost two decades ago, Lyndall Parris had her big idea. “Two of my friends’ husbands died, leaving them to continue bringing up their two teenagers alone. I just started thinking: this is crazy. I can’t help them much, they’re living in different places. If we were living together in a village, wouldn’t it be easier?” she recalls. Parris began researching alternative ways of living. ... In 2012, 24 of them pooled their money to buy a 68-hectare plot of land outside Gosford on the New South Wales Central Coast. In 2019, the first residents moved in. They called it Narara Ecovillage.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/apr/23/i-dont-want…
# NSW, Share houses, Affordable housing, Housing market, Older people, Regional NSW.New Zealand’s cooling housing market means opportunity for some, angst for others
Tess McClure The Guardian (No paywall)From New Zealand ... For years, the country’s housing market has been on a seemingly-unstoppable upward trajectory, with homes in major centres averaging at over $1m a pop. Now, New Zealand is in the midst of some of the largest drops and slowdowns since the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Some banks are predicting a 10% fall over the course of 2022.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/23/housing-dilemma-co…
# International, Housing market.Report: "Historic" change in Helsinki rental costs
(No paywall)From Finland ... The Helsinki region has seen "historic" changes in rental costs, according to the latest market report by Statistics Finland. The figures show that rents for non-subsidised housing dropped in the capital region by 0.3 percent and in the city of Helsinki by 0.2 percent during the first quarter of 2022, compared to the previous year's figures for the same period. This means that rental costs in the capital region have decreased for the fourth quarter in a row, according to the statistics agency. "Rental cost decreases for non-subsidised housing haven't been recorded in the capital region for the past number of years, so in that sense the decrease is historic," according to Martti Korhonen, a senior statistician at the central data bureau. He added that the supply of rental housing has surged, which has also led to a decrease in costs. The reasons behind the increased supply include the rise in distance learning, the loss of international students, and Airbnb apartments being offered as long-term rentals due to an overall drop in tourism. (YLE News)
# International, Rent, Housing market, Short-term holiday letting, Students.Businesses buy homes for staff to rent to combat worker shortage arising from housing crisis
Adriane Reardon and Miranda Saunders ABC (No paywall)Some businesses in NSW say a shortage of affordable housing has forced them to buy properties to retain and attract staff in a bid to address a severe worker shortage. The strategy has been implemented by a club in Merimbula on the NSW Far South Coast after it was failing to retain staff.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-23/businesses-buy-homes-to-c…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Regional NSW, Work, employment.Election surprise from RBA on cards with super-sized rate rise
Rachel Clun and Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Reserve Bank is a 50-50 chance to deliver a late election campaign interest rate rise to millions of Australian home buyers with the nation’s second-largest lender warning people could face the largest one-off rate rise since the start of the century.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/election-surprise-from-r…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Student housing deal sees Singaporean Wee Hur raise $567 million
Carolyn Cummings The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Singapore-based developer Wee Hur Holdings Ltd has sold down a large chunk of its student housing project in Sydney’s inner west for $567 million as part of its planned recapitalisation program that will allow funds to go towards new sites. The group is one of the largest suppliers of student housing cross the country through its Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) platform with 5662 beds across seven sites over Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra. Of that, four of the assets are already operational while the remaining three will be completed before the end of 2023.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/student-housing-deal-s…
# NSW, Housing market, International, Students.‘Harsh truth’: More than half of Sydney’s councils failing to meet housing targets
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More than half of Sydney councils have failed to meet targets to build new homes, amid concerns too many apartments are being built on the urban fringe rather than inner-city areas where people want to live. Nineteen out of 33 Sydney councils did not meet the five-year target for homes to be built between 2016 and 2021. ... Bill Randolph, a professor in the City Futures Research Centre at the University of NSW, called for more moderate-scale housing development in middle-ring suburbs and “not just in tower blocks crammed around railway stations or single lot houses crammed into fringe lot developments. ... There needs to be a major shift back to public intervention to fund really affordable housing for those who cannot afford the escalating market prices – built by the private sector but owned and managed by not-for-profits.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/harsh-truth-more-than-half-of-sy…
# NSW, Affordable housing, Housing market, Planning and development.Tamworth Country Music Festival and other events creating 'no vacancies' for rough sleepers
Kemii Maguire ABC (No paywall)Charities say people in need of temporary or emergency accommodation are being priced out of homes during major festivals, creating a spike in rough sleepers. Tamworth, in north-west NSW, has more than 50 hotels within 10 kilometres of its CBD, but most were booked out months in advance of this week's Country Music Festival. While the festival and the tens of thousands of tourists it attracts are a saviour for local businesses, homelessness organisations have warned it was their busiest time of year.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-24/homelessness-increase-dur…
# NSW, Homelessness, Housing market.