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
New research shows how bad Australia’s housing crisis has become
Rohan Smith news.com.au (No paywall)Staggering new research shows exactly how hard it is for a young person to pay rent in any of Australia’s capital cities, let alone buy a home. The research carried out by the Everybody’s Home campaign — a coalition of housing, homelessness and welfare organisations — will send a chill down the spines of young people hoping to enter the housing market in jobs like retail and hospitality. Researchers looked at the average rent of a single bedroom in a two-bedroom apartment in Australia’s capital cities. They cross referenced that with the weekly wage of a level 1, 18-year-old hospitality or retail worker, as well as somebody on Youth Allowance. The findings? The average 18-year-old retail worker in every capital city spent way above 30 per cent of their income on renting just that one room — a figure most experts say indicates rental stress.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/new-research…
# Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market, Young people.Construction industry looks at one-bedroom dongas to ease housing crisis on Gold Coast
Nicole Dyer, Matt Webber, and Kimberley Bernard ABC (No paywall)The cost of living has forced business owners to think outside the box to address housing on the Gold Coast. ... Last year's Woman of the Year, entrepreneur and founding director of My Bella Casa, Tamika Smith, believed off-site construction of one-bedroom houses for new dwellings was the answer.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-20/one-bedroom-dongas-pitche…
# Australia, Housing market.Australia’s election debate on energy ignores the miracle of rooftop solar
Saul Griffith The Guardian (No paywall)Power harvested from our roofs and stored locally could smash carbon emissions and obliterate household energy bills.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/20/australias…
# Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change.What a £350,000 average house price means for first-time buyers in Great Britain
Colin Jones The Conversation (No paywall)The average house price in Great Britain has risen above £350,000 for the first time, according to property website Rightmove. ... As a result, middle-income households are priced out of the market. ... The UK government’s statistics show that the proportion of people who owned and lived in their own home peaked at just under 71% in 2003 in England. By 2020, it had fallen to 64%. In the 2000s, the private-rented sector grew massively, with the rise of buy-to-let landlords. At the same time, there was a large increase in the number of young adults living with their parents. This phenomenon has also continued because both buying and renting have become increasingly unaffordable. Nevertheless, people largely still aspire to own their own homes.
https://theconversation.com/what-a-350-000-average-house-price-m…
# International, Home ownership, Housing market.Unprincipled moves: Is World Health Day worth celebrating?
Susan Thompson, Norma Shankie-Williams and Danny Wiggins. City Futures (No paywall)Our physical environment is central to our health. So with the NSW government dumping the D&P SEPP, is there much to celebrate this World Health Day?
https://blogs.unsw.edu.au/cityfutures/blog/2022/04/unprincipled-…
# NSW, Climate change, Health, Planning and development, State Government.The looming risk that could leave first-home buyers $20,000 out of pocket
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)First-home buyers who purchase with a small deposit risk owing thousands of dollars more on their home loan than their house is worth if property prices fall, new modelling shows. First-time buyers can consider a bigger budget after the federal government lifted its price caps for the Home Guarantee Scheme this week, allowing a purchase with a 5 per cent deposit without paying lenders’ mortgage insurance.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-looming-risk-that-could…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.The great toilet roll count: how Airbnbs have changed over time
Amelia Lester The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Nothing says hospitality like counting toilet rolls. That’s exactly what my Airbnb hosts did before I took a midweek getaway to their property. A welcome email listed how many toilet rolls would be allocated per bathroom (two) – along with the number of paper towels (“1 for properties 3 bedrooms or less, 2 for greater than 3 bedrooms”) and the promise of a single sponge.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-great-toilet-roll-count-how-…
# Australia, Short-term holiday letting.Three regional property hotspots investors need to watch
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)Houses in regional Australia have experienced outstanding capital growth, and there’s no end yet in sight. There’s also a well-documented shortage of property to lease in many of the areas, with rents on a similarly steep upward trajectory.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/three-regional-property-hot…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Regional NSW.