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
‘Gross overdevelopment’: Sydney council fights Blackwattle Bay skyscraper plan
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Apartment towers up to 45 storeys high proposed for the Sydney Fish Market site on Blackwattle Bay should be built in shorter blocks, and buffered by a wider foreshore promenade, according to the City of Sydney. The government’s development arm, Infrastructure NSW, last year revealed plans to redevelop the site of the Pyrmont fish market – which is being shifted to a $750 million building that is under construction on Bridge Road.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/gross-overdevelopment-sydney…
# NSW, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.Squeeze on first-home buyers likely to worsen
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)First-home buyers are likely to struggle even more to get a foothold on the property ladder this year as higher interest rates, rents, and cost of living conspire to reduce their capacity to save and to borrow.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/squeeze-on-f…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Coalition targets first home-buyers by upping mortgage guarantee scheme
Mike Foley The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Coalition will raise the price caps for houses eligible under its controversial Home Guarantee Scheme to help home buyers get into the property market faster as the soaring cost of housing plays a key role in the federal election.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/coalition-targets-first-…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability.Change is on the way for the private rented sector. It remains to be seen whether it will be enough
Jules Birch Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... This is shaping up to be a significant year for the regulation of rented housing, with the Social Housing Regulation Bill set to be followed by a white paper on the private rented sector. While there are still clear differences between the two sectors, there are also similarities in terms of landlords who are unaccountable and tenants who lack a say. In a hybrid world, social housing has become more business-focused and private renting has become, by default, home to many of those in the greatest housing need. [Read on]
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/change-is-on-the-way-for…
# International, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.'House hackers' buy homes to live in, then rent out rooms to help pay their mortgages. Now critics are taking to TikTok to accuse them of 'exploiting' tenants.
Dan Latu (Paywall)People are blasting live-in landlords as "leeches" in the comments of real-estate-investing skits on TikTok. Landlords counter it's a "partnership." (Business Inside)
https://www.businessinsider.com/real-estate-investing-house-hack…
# International, Landlords and agents.First home buyers 'missing out' on property boom as Qld developers strike out with sunset clauses
Cathy Border, Sally Rope, and Tom Forbes ABC (No paywall)Queensland's property laws have come under fire as more developers use sunset clauses to cancel contracts and leave would-be first home buyers priced out of the market. ... [Gold Coast resident Yasmin Reiser said] after lengthy delays she was worried a sunset clause could be activated to rescind the contract after 18 months. ... Ms Resier said that she and several other buyers had a condition in their contracts that allowed them, and the developers, to cancel the contract if the development had not been finalised within 18 months.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-16/property-developer-sunset…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Home renovation spending soars to $12b as locked-down Aussies extend, beautify their houses
Owen Jacques ABC (No paywall)Australians have spent more on home renovations during the pandemic years than at any other time since records began 50 years ago. As COVID landed, spread and paralysed much of Australian life, with state and international borders closed and entire cities locked down, we began spending more on renovations — up 10 per cent to $9.2 billion. But last year it must have felt safer to bet the house, with Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing renovators poured a massive $12.3 billion into renovating their homes, up 33 per cent on 2020. That's almost double what we spent on renovations just 10 years ago.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-16/home-renovations-record-s…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Record Gold Coast rental market likely to 'edge higher' as tenants 'lock in' for longer
Dominic Cansdale ABC (No paywall)Record median rental prices on the Gold Coast continue to rise as low vacancy rates and short-term holiday leasing fuel an already competitive housing market. Domain's quarterly rental report shows weekly median rents for houses have jumped by a 25 per cent in the 12 months to March, while units now cost almost 20 per cent more to rent.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-14/gold-coast-rental-prices-…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.