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
Reimagining the economics of public housing estate renewal and the role of government – new research
Shelter NSW (No paywall)Late last week Shelter NSW released new research, calling on the NSW Government to rethink its traditional approach to supplying social housing across the state – an approach that is holding back its key agency the Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC) and compromising the delivery of enough social housing to make a material difference to the housing crisis. You can read the report at: [https://shelternsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Reimagining-the-economics-of-public-housing-at-Waterloo_FINAL.pdf]
https://mailchi.mp/shelternsw/reimagining-the-economics-of-publi…
# Research alert NSW, Public and community housing, Campaigns and law reform, Housing market.Housing in the coming federal election
Hal Pawson Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)Very largely thanks to economic stimulus pumped into the economy to ward off COVID recession, Australia’s housing is now 30% more expensive than in 2019. Add to that, the recent spike in rent inflation greater than at any time since 2008, and it’s obvious that the pandemic has exacerbated this country’s longstanding housing affordability challenge. The scene is therefore surely set for housing affordability to feature as a significant flashpoint in the coming federal election – just as in three of the last five national contests. ... the cost of continuing to muddle through will be high – both for many individual housing consumers, and for the economy as a whole.
https://johnmenadue.com/housing-in-the-coming-federal-election-b…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability.Experts warn coastal communities are vulnerable to more flooding, as Gold Coast Mayor defends response
Tom Forbes, Nicole Dyer and Kirsten Webster ABC (No paywall)Town planning experts say the recent flood events in Queensland and New South Wales highlight how vulnerable coastal communities, including the Gold Coast, are to major weather events. ... Director of the Cities Research Institute at Griffith University, Professor Paul Burton, said the "horse has bolted" with development in these areas, leaving communities at risk during extreme weather. ... More than 630,000 people live on the Gold Coast and Professor Burton said authorities have very few options when trying to prevent future flood events.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-07/development-leaves-coasta…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.Homebuyer blues: The musical comedy taking aim at the property market
Bridget McManus The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)In just 30 minutes, with a whole lot of colour, movement, irony, and the star power of Eurovision art-pop sensation Montaigne, the satirical sketch team from SBS’ current affairs show, The Feed, have nailed the woeful state of the property market for aspiring first-home owners. Taking aim at money lenders, real estate agents, Boomers and Millennials, Time To Buy is a black comedy musical in technicolour disguise that screams a worrying truth about our times. Check it out at: [https://tvtonight.com.au/2022/02/the-feed-time-to-buy-the-musical.html]
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/homebuyer-blues-the-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Social housing stock to be boosted by $100 million spend to address 'dire shortage' in Adelaide
ABC (No paywall)Welfare group AnglicareSA has announced a $100 million investment to replenish and expand its social housing stock, amid a further decline in affordability across the nation. House and rental prices have reached record levels in Adelaide and other capitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving low-income earners especially vulnerable and first-home buyers facing the prospect of protracted house hunting. AnglicareSA said the investment would take place over 10 years and go towards upgrading and expanding the existing stock of 2,100 social and affordable homes, to address what it described as a "dire shortage". ... Federal opposition homelessness spokesman Jason Clare attended today's announcement and said that, during the 1950s, 15 per cent of Australian housing was social housing. "Today it's barely four, and to keep it at four we've got to build 4,000 homes like this every year. We're building barely 3,000," he said. "So we need more projects like this."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-08/anglicare-invests-in-soci…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Housing affordability, Housing market.NSW, Queensland floods on track to be among country's worst-ever natural disasters, Climate Council says
James Purtill ABC (No paywall)The ongoing floods in Queensland and New South Wales are on track to be one of Australia's worst-ever natural disasters. And if this news isn't bleak enough, we can expect more extensive and more frequent flooding as climate change intensifies. These are the conclusions of a Climate Council report summarising the latest data on the scale of the disaster and underlining the link to global warming caused by human activity. The Brisbane "rain bomb", for instance, dropped more water on the city than typically falls in London over an entire year, and the volume flowing through the Brisbane River far exceeded the 2010-11 floods. Insurance claims along the eastern seaboard may be as great as the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires. So how bad is the property damage?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-03-10/floods-nsw-queens…
# Australia, Climate change, Housing market.Tenants seek help in the fallout from severe weather
Rosie Bensley Illawarra Mercury (No paywall)Former UOW student Holly Grace knows what it's like to live in a flooded share house, battling property damage, mould and uncooperative real estate agents. After severe weather and flooding in the Illawarra this week, she's lived a reality that many young renters are now facing. Ms Grace lived in a share house in Keiraville that flooded in 2020. The flooding caused damage and long-term mould problems that ended in a battle in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. "One of the girl's rooms was completely unusable. All of her possessions were destroyed," Ms Grace said. Despite the damage, the landlord refused to work with the tenants to solve the issues. ... After severe weather hit the Illawarra this week, many New South Wales tenants are facing the fallout. For young people and new renters, it can be difficult to know what damages you're liable for and where to get advice, Tenants Union NSW CEO Leo Patterson Ross said.
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/7644746/how-uow-studen…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Repairs, Tribunal NCAT, Landlords and agents.‘Unimaginable’: Thousands displaced as true extent of NSW floods revealed
Tom Rabe The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More than 2000 homes and businesses in the state’s inundated Northern Rivers have been declared unliveable and NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet warned the recovery will take years as the true extent of the disaster becomes clear. Mr Perrottet on Sunday described scenes in Lismore and its surrounds as “unimaginable” while receding floodwaters revealed the scale of the deadly catastrophe. Short-term housing for the thousands displaced across the region has been identified as a priority.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/unimaginable-thousands-displ…
# NSW, Housing market, Regional NSW.