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
Landlords easily evaded COVID eviction bans, housing study reveals
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Pandemic-era private rental assistance measures had only modest outcomes, new research has found, after some landlords decided government help was not worthwhile. Eviction moratoriums were easily evaded by landlords, meaning tenants moved out if they could not pay rent. There was also significant underspending in most rent-relief schemes, a report from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, released on Friday, uncovered. You can read about the full report at: [https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/376]
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/landlords-easily-evaded-cov…
# Research alert Australia, Eviction, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.Salvation Army's National Social Justice Stocktake Report says housing affordability the highest concern for Hunter region electorates
Sage Swinton Newcastle Herald (Paywall)Housing affordability is a concern for almost two thirds of residents in the Hunter electorate who were surveyed for a new social justice report. The Salvation Army's National Social Justice Stocktake Report says that while mental health was the number one concern Australia-wide, housing affordability topped the result for the local electorates of Hunter, Newcastle, Paterson and Shortland. ... Alcohol and drug misuse was the next most concerning issue for the four communities, with residents in Hunter the most concerned about this issue (46.4 per cent) out of the local electorates, while domestic violence and homelessness were other concerns mentioned. ... Hunter Tenants and Advocacy service Nicole Grgas said the concern about housing in particular was no surprise. "We're not seeing any reduction in housing stress," she said. "The situation is becoming really desperate. Not only for people on low incomes - rent is taking up more and more of people's incomes." She said the widespread housing stress was "a symptom of a failure to plan for changes in demographics". "We've known for a long time we need more affordable housing and social housing where there is growth in population," she said. "There just seems to be small pots of funding to fix the problem." If you hit a paywall, try you will catch part of this article at: [https://www.singletonargus.com.au/story/7689211/housing-cost-regions-biggest-issue-survey/] You can download the National Report and reports by State/Territory and Electorates at: [https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/socialjusticestocktake/]
https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/7687113/housing-cost-re…
# NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Regional NSW.Support needed to help millions of Australian renters with rising cost of living, experts say
Tom Lowrey ABC (No paywall)If there was one clear message out of last week's federal budget — the government's springboard into an election campaign — it was tackling the cost of living. ... But there is a large group of Australians — including many of the country's poorest — who missed out on targeted relief. One third of Australians are currently renting, making up 2.6 million households. Currently, 14 per cent of them are experiencing rental stress, with more than 30 per cent of their income going to rent ... an analysis of rental stress across the country conducted by the ABC shows it is a particularly acute problem in some politically critical areas [read 'marginal seats']. ... Urban planner Nicole Gurran, from the University of Sydney, said the rent assistance payment has been too low for some time. ... She said if the government wanted to improve the cost of living, increasing the rental assistance payment was a logical solution. "Renters, particularly lower income renters, are bearing the brunt of Australia's cost of living pressures," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-08/support-needed-australian…
# Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Welfare.Land swaps, relocations or rebuilds: Lismore community grapples with its future
Susan Chenery The Guardian (No paywall)The northern rivers region of New South Wales has some of the most beautiful landscapes in the country. ... But on 28 February, everything changed. After six months of rain, the rivers overflowed and flooded. ... In devastated Lismore, flood-affected residents were taking the first steps towards recovery when, on 30 March, it flooded again. Tentative hope turned to disbelief. Now they are in limbo, exhausted, disoriented, waiting on decisions. Houses are not habitable, scattered across the region. Sleeping in caravans, tents and sheds, or couch-surfing in the overcrowded houses of friends.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/09/land-swap…
# NSW, Housing market, Planning and development, Regional NSW.A new platform for informing and monitoring housing strategy
housing.id (No paywall)housing.id is an online evidence base: a website created specifically for your LGA to help you advocate for your community’s housing needs and monitor progress toward strategic planning goals. Designed for strategic planning and advocacy teams, housing.id combines demographic, economic, housing and population forecast data in one place. (.idcommunity)
https://housing.id.com.au/?hsCtaTracking=3a3d0a32-bf7a-40c2-b986…
# Australia, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development.Plan to ban dark roofs abandoned as NSW government walks back sustainability measures
Elias Visontay The Guardian (No paywall)The New South Wales government has abandoned its plan to ban dark roofs – aimed at reducing temperatures and energy costs for new homes – as the state’s new planning minister walks back ambitious sustainability measures announced by his predecessor. Former planning minister Rob Stokes previously announced he would be tasking the Department of Planning and Environment with implementing a requirement for lighter-coloured roofs in all new homes in the state, and that the policy feature would help NSW achieve its goal of net zero emissions by 2050. “This would have an enormous impact on the urban heat island effect in our city,” Stokes told a forum run by urban thinktank Committee for Sydney in November. ... aul Scully, the NSW Labor opposition planning spokesperson, said “the NSW government needs to come clean with precisely which planning policies it remains committed to and how scrapping measures aimed at addressing climate change in the built environment will achieve their net zero by 2050 target”. “Another week, another component of the NSW government’s net zero commitment appears to have fallen by the way side,” Scully said.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/09/plan-to-b…
# NSW, Climate change, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Planning and development.Rate rise could wipe 15 per cent from home prices: RBA
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A 2 percentage point lift in interest rates could knock 15 per cent off the value of Australian homes, the Reserve Bank has warned while telling people who have taken out huge mortgages over recent years to start bracing for an increase in their repayments. The RBA said people who took out fixed-rate mortgages on record low interest rates during the COVID-19 recession faced potentially “large shocks” as they rolled over their loans into an environment with much higher rates.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rate-rise-could-wipe-15-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.'Corruption, manipulation, deceit’ found in WA departmen
Judy Skatssoon (No paywall)A project manager in the WA state government took a 10 per cent cut of every contract awarded to a mate, a corruption investigation has found. The investigation uncovered what the state’s corruption watchdog describes as a ‘web of corruption, manipulation and deceit’ in WA’s former housing department. The Corruption and Crime Commission report, Misconduct in the Department of Communities relating to country building projects , details how a senior project manager with the then housing department accepted kickbacks from two men who, with his help, won lucrative contracts.
https://www.governmentnews.com.au/corruption-manipulation-deceit…
# Australia, Public and community housing.