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
Interest-rate rises are coming: is it time to fix your home loan?
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When interest rates rise again for the first time since November 2010 – as most economists now expect to happen on the first Tuesday in June –it’s hard to understate what big news that will be. About a million borrowers have taken out their loans over the past decade, meaning they will never have felt the pinch of a rate hike. For many, it’s a worrying prospect and many are wondering if they should act to fix the interest rate on their mortgage.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/interest-rate-rises-are-c…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Leaked plans reveal building heights for White Bay Power Station development
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A two-hectare waterfront park and buildings up to 22 storeys high are planned for the first stage of a prized area abutting the old White Bay power station in Sydney’s inner west, internal documents show. The leaked draft plans, seen by the Herald, show the tallest towers proposed for the first stage of the area at Rozelle will be between 12 and 22 storeys and setback from the waterfront near the motorway ramps to the Anzac Bridge.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/leaked-plans-reveal-building…
# NSW, Planning and development.Houses still in high demand, apartment prices lag
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The price growth of apartments continues to lag rocketing house prices in many suburbs across Sydney and Melbourne, with the trend showing little signs of abating. The widening price gap between houses and units is a long-term trend driven by land scarcity in our biggest cities, with the difference tending to be widest between houses and high-rise apartments.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/houses-still-in-high-dema…
# Australia, Housing market.‘It almost broke me’: How a house move exposes the impermanency of life
Dugald Jellie The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Two days after an upstairs neighbour lent a hand hauling a fridge up the front steps into my new home, I heard him sing and knew I’d made the right choice. It helps that he’s a baritone for Opera Australia, but in the wrench of relocating, what helped even more was his offer to help me lug a 442-litre whitegood up those stairs. Moving house is no jaunt.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/it-almost-broke-me-how-a-house-m…
# NSW, Home.#MyRentedHome wrap up video ... and more
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Check out this #MyRentedHome wrap up video from our campaign just two weeks ago, 4- 9 April. Here are some of the great posts renters put up during the week of action. Just 2 minutes 20 seconds to view. Now it's time for our next #MakeRentingFair organising meeting! It'll be happening online, next Thursday, 28 April, at 6pm. This time around we'll be brainstorming and honing some policy asks for the campaign between now and the March 2023 NSW election. Come along and join the conversation, hear our ideas and have your own say, and contribute to shaping the Make Renting Fair campaign for the coming year. Check out: [https://www.facebook.com/events/737837227595799]. Be part of the action.
https://mailchi.mp/tenants.org.au/make-renting-fair-making-a-com…
# Video NSW, Eviction, Rent, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Disability, Families, Federal Government, Health, Home, Homelessness, Housing market, Human rights, No-grounds evictions, Pets, Regional NSW.No to rental evictions
International Union of Tenants (No paywall)Statement on evictions ... Affordable housing is at the heart of European public policies and should be at the heart of international public policies. However, for years, the political choices made by States have contributed to reinforcing expensive housing, amplifying the housing crisis and initiating a financialisation of social housing which aggravates economic and social inequalities. Since the Covid pandemic and the explosion of energy prices, household budgets have been undergoing a continuous deterioration which makes the energy transition and the construction of affordable housing for all even more urgent and imperative. (International Union of Tenants)
# Must read International, Eviction, Public and community housing, Utilities electricity water gas, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing affordability, Housing market.‘I always have trouble with forms’: homeless people on how poor literacy affects them – and what would help
Benjamin Hanckel, Alan Morris and Keiko Yasukawa The Conversation (No paywall)Homelessness remains a huge problem in Australia and an important contributing factor is low literacy levels. We interviewed 23 people who were homeless or had experienced homelessness to find out how they viewed literacy and participation in literacy classes. We wanted to know what would help or hinder them in attending literacy classes. Our report found low literacy levels affected homeless people’s lives in many ways. Our interviewees repeatedly emphasised the importance of having a literacy program suited to their needs.
https://theconversation.com/i-always-have-trouble-with-forms-hom…
# Research alert NSW, Homelessness, Work, employment.Human decency missing from government’s offshore asylum policy, says G15 landlord
Stephen DElahunty Inside Housing (Paywall)From the united Kingdom ... The government should reconsider its controversial policy to process asylum applications in Rwanda as it “fails on the basic principle of needing to treat people with human decency”, according to a G15 landlord. Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTVH) said it is deeply concerned by the government’s multimillion-pound immigration plan that will see asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats from France sent to Rwanda. ... A spokesperson for MTVH said that the association has a long history of providing homes and support to refugees and those seeking sanctuary in the UK. “For more than a decade our Migration Foundation has worked to support people arriving in this country and the communities they live in,” they said. “By giving people the tools and support they need to build a new life here – often after they have fled unimaginable suffering, persecution and war – people have the chance to live well and to contribute to society. At the heart of this approach is treating people decently and with humanity.”
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/human-decency-missing-…
# International, Public and community housing, Human rights, Race and ethnicity.