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
‘Act urgently now’: Why sky-high house prices are a problem for everyone
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Fixing housing affordability is an enormous task, but it’s too important not to get right. Another review has laid bare the challenge for first-home hopefuls facing skyrocketing property prices, combined with rising rents and scant interest on their savings. ... Independent economist Saul Eslake said the recommendations might help over an eight- to 10-year time frame, as constraints on new supply are an issue for housing affordability, but took issue with the scope. “While there are things that can usefully be done in that area, trying to solve the housing affordability problem solely from the supply side is like being in a boxing match with one hand tied behind your back,” the principal of Corinna Economic Advisory said. “Government policies which have served to inflate demand have also contributed to the deterioration in housing affordability and the decline in home ownership.”
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/act-urgently-now-why-sky-hi…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Planning and development, Tax.Buyers are aware of the potential disaster in the rush to the regions
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Around three-quarters of Australians would move from a capital city to a mid-sized regional town under the right circumstances, new research shows, but the threat of bushfires and floods play into where they would choose to live. Only 16 per cent are happy to stay put in the city, a new Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute report, titled Understanding what attracts new residents to smaller cities, revealed.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/buyers-are-aware-of-the-pot…
# Research alert Australia, Housing market, Regional NSW.Pre-fab homes on govt land provide more social housing
Judy Skatssoon (No paywall)Modular homes that are constructed off-site and transported to location are being built by the state government to help meet the demand for more social housing in WA. The West Australian government has so far delivered 36 modular homes through its social housing modular build program and last week announced it had signed a new tranche of 21 contracts worth $9 million with ‘multiple companies’ after inviting tenders. (Government News)
https://www.governmentnews.com.au/pre-fab-homes-on-govt-land-pro…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Housing market, State Government.Sydney first-home buyers need more than eight years to save a house deposit
Kate Burke and Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Sydney first-home buyers need more than eight years to save a house deposit, with soaring property prices and low wages growth blowing out the time it takes to save for an entry-level home.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/sydney-first-home-buyers-ne…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Housing nightmare: South Coast residents living in cars, mouldy tents and caves
Grace Crivellaro Illawarra Mercury (Paywall)The worsening crisis in regional housing is gripping the South Coast, with hundreds of people now sleeping rough ...
https://www.illawarramercury.com.au/story/7669598/housing-nightm…
# NSW, Homelessness, Housing market, Regional NSW.‘I rang the homeless line’: How Queensland’s floods compounded a housing crisis
Joe Hinchliffe The Guardian (No paywall)St Vincent de Paul state chief, Kevin Mercer ... says the charity was seeing several hundred people seek assistance every week – a number he said was growing on a daily basis. He says his organisation is working on an estimate that 20,000 homes are affected by flooding, over an area that sprawled from Gympie south to the Gold Coast and into New South Wales. “When you look at it in the context of housing, that’s 20,000 that need housing on top of the 50,000 people we already had on the housing waiting list before the floods.” Mercer says. “So these things are just compounding into a housing crisis that we already had.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/19/i-rang-th…
# Australia, Homelessness, Housing market.Future of Luddenham in doubt as plan to build more houses blocked by builders of Western Sydney airport
Cath Hanrahan ABC (No paywall)A tiny village in Western Sydney faces a "long, slow death spiral" because the federal government corporation building the city's new airport is blocking a plan to save it, locals say. Luddenham village, population 450, is located just a kilometre from the new Western Sydney airport, set to open in 2026. Airport construction, and the new road infrastructure to service it, has swallowed many of the homes in Luddenham. It now sits in the Western Sydney Aerotropolis that will surround the new airport, in an agribusiness zone that does not permit new residential development. Two options in a NSW government plan would see land to the north of the village rezoned to allow between 550 and 1,200 new homes to be built. However, Western Sydney Airport Corporation (WSA Co), set up by the federal government to build and operate the airport, has lodged an objection to further housing in Luddenham.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-20/luddenham-village-future-…
# NSW, Federal Government, Housing market, Planning and development, State Government.One year after the aged care royal commission, families say 'nothing's changed' at a nursing home in Melbourne
Norman Hermant ABC (No paywall)Like so many people who face a decision about placing a parent into residential aged care, for Litsa Beck it was a struggle. Seven years ago her father George Poulos was living with dementia and could no longer look after himself. His family moved him into Bupa Aged Care Templestowe, in Melbourne. "I was expecting specialist dementia care. I was expecting a workforce that were highly trained," Ms Beck said. "That was my impression … that is not what I found as time went on."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-24/family-concerns-about-bup…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people.