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
Queensland government proposes third wave of funding for flood victims worth three-quarters of a billion dollars
Alex Brewster ABC (No paywall)Deputy Premier Steven Miles says the Queensland government has requested sign-off from the federal government on a $771-million flood relief package. He said the government had assessed 6,800 homes as having some kind of damage as a result of the flooding. Under the plan, grants of up to $50,000 will be available to retrofit 5,500 flood-affected homes, while grants of up to $100,000 will be on offer to raise 1,000 homes. Meanwhile, $350 million will be dedicated to buying back up to 500 homes.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-19/queensland-floods-funding…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, State Government.One in 10 Sydney homes for sale in February were discounts
Tawar Razaghi The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)One in 10 homes for sale in February were offering discounts, a share that is only likely to grow as long as sellers expect 2021 prices despite the market slowing since.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/one-in-10-sydney-homes-for-…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market.Homeless and looking for help – why people with disability and their carers fare worse after floods
Jodie Baille, Jo Longman, Michelle Villeneuve and Ross Baille The Conversation (No paywall)Thousands of people have been displaced from the floods in New South Wales and Queensland. Across the Northern Rivers, the floods have damaged at least 5,500 homes, with at least half of these expected to be uninhabitable. Floods expose social inequities and exacerbate the housing crisis for people with disability and carers in the region.
https://theconversation.com/homeless-and-looking-for-help-why-pe…
# NSW, Disability, Housing market, Regional NSW.After the floods, the distressing but necessary case for managed retreat
Antonia Settle The Conversation (No paywall)From Brisbane to Sydney, many thousands of Australians have been reliving a devastating experience they hoped – in 2021, 2020, 2017, 2015, 2013, 2012 or 2010/11 – would never happen to them again. For some suburbs built on the flood plains of the Nepean River in western Sydney, for example, these floods are their third in two years. Flooding is a part of life in parts of Australia. But as climate change intensifies the frequency and severity of floods, fires and other disasters, and recovery costs soar, two big questions arise. As a society, should we be setting up individuals and families for ruin by allowing them to build back in areas where they can’t afford insurance? And is it fair for taxpayers to carry the huge burden of paying for future rescue and relief costs?
https://theconversation.com/after-the-floods-the-distressing-but…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.‘A disaster waiting to happen’: Residents raised concerns about boarding house before deadly blaze
Megan Gorrey, Josh Dye and Sarah Keoghan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Residents who survived a suspicious boarding house fire that killed three people in Sydney’s inner west say they heard an explosion that resembled a bomb going off before they were forced to flee through thick smoke. ... Residents say they had complained to the building’s owner about poor living conditions at the boarding house. You will find an update to this report at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/man-charged-with-three-counts-of-murder-over-newtown-boarding-house-fire-20220316-p5a505.html] And, here's a report in 'The Guardian'. Go to: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/16/man-charged-with-after-three-die-in-sydney-boarding-house-fire]
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/a-disaster-waiting-to-happen…
# NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Rent, Homelessness.Vacancies hit 16-year low in ‘rental crisis’
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)National residential property rental vacancy rates slid to just 1.2 per cent in February – the lowest since April 2006. The tight market has seen rents soar as much as 10 per cent, further hitting household budgets at a time when other non-discretionary spending on things such as petrol and food are surging. Sydney’s vacancy rate last month was 2 per cent and 2.3 per cent in Melbourne, figures from SQM Research show. Vacancies in regional rental markets are even worse. ... Renters in regional centres in NSW are faring even worse. The vacancy rates in Wollongong and the Central Coast were just 0.6 per cent. In Newcastle, it was 1 per cent.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/vacancies-hi…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Regional NSW.Sydney, Melbourne among top five least affordable cities in the world to buy a home
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Australia’s house prices are among the least affordable across the globe, with new data revealing Sydney and Melbourne sit in the top five least affordable cities for local home buyers. Demographia’s International Housing Affordability 2022 Edition revealed Sydney was the second least affordable city to buy a house, with the median price 15 times more than the average household income in 2021. The harbour city was beaten only by Hong Kong, where house prices are 23 times the household income. Melbourne came in as the fifth least affordable city, with the median house price now 12 times the average household income. Other Australian capitals were also considered “severely unaffordable”, as they had house prices more than five times average incomes.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/sydney-melbourne-among-top-…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.‘He wants to give it to someone else’: rent rises leaving a toll on regional NSW
Michael McGowan and Josh Nicholas The Guardian (No paywall)In July last year, Anna’s real estate agent called to say that her landlord had decided to sell the house in Bega, in the state’s south, where she and her partner had lived for the past two years. ... Leo Patterson Ross, the chief executive of the Tenants’ Union of NSW, said he had seen a massive increase in the number of evictions like Anna's during the pandemic, due to what he called the “waves of displacement” caused by rising rents in regional parts of the state. “We saw a doubling of people calling about no grounds evictions in the regional areas because people are being pushed out to make way for the flow of people moving out of the cities,” he said. ... After they lost their Bega property, Anna and her partner were unable to find a new home for months, and lived in a tent for two months as they searched for somewhere to live. In the end, they were forced to head further south, to Pambula, to find a property.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/17/he-wants-…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Rent, Housing market, No-grounds evictions, Regional NSW.