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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
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Archive
First-home buyers urged to consider waiting as prices stall
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Homebuyers looking to get a foot on the property ladder, but fear missing out as prices in our two largest capital cities become increasingly unaffordable, are urged to consider waiting and use the time to save for a bigger deposit. ... Many property experts say the boom may be over and that prices are likely to slide from here. ... Rents are rising strongly in Sydney – another factor to consider in the decision of whether to become a homeowner. Figures from Andrew Wilson show rents for Sydney houses rose 11.5 per cent over the past 12 months and unit rents rose by 6.7 per cent. Melbourne house rents are up 4.7 per cent, though rents on Melbourne units are down 3.2 per cent.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/first-home-buyers-urged-t…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market.What are the signs that a property market has peaked?
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)The Sydney and Melbourne housing markets may have peaked or could be set to peak by spring, bank economists say, even as prices in other cities keep rising. ... So, what are the signs of a market peak?
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/what-are-the-signs-that-a-p…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.More than a quarter of Sydney suburbs have a median house price of $2m
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Median house prices have topped the $2 million mark in more than a quarter of Sydney suburbs, with areas such as Eastwood, Matraville and Caringbah South among the latest to join the club.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/more-than-a-quarter-of-sydn…
# NSW, Housing market.Growing mismatch between where Sydney’s skilled workers live and work
Anna Patty The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The number of Western Sydney residents with professional skills, including IT, finance, science and public administration, has spiked by up to 34 per cent in five years, but tens of thousands still face long commutes to jobs outside the area. ... However, the lack of employment opportunities in the region has forced more than 34,000 to commute to jobs outside the area each day, fuelling calls for more businesses to be based in the Parramatta area.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/growing-mismatch-betwe…
# NSW, Families, Work, employment.The Sydney suburbs foreign buyers searched most during the pandemic
Tawar Razaghi and Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Blue-chip Sydney suburbs near schools, the city or surf were the most sought-after locations for foreign buyers during the coronavirus pandemic. Sydney topped the list of overseas searches, while other popular suburbs included Mosman, Middle Harbour and Chatswood, based on Domain listing data from January 2021 to February 2022.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-sydney-suburbs-foreign-…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.How home buyers are spotting a motivated vendor
Melissa Heagney and Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Some homeowners have become more motivated to sell their properties, with record volumes of auctions going ahead in recent weeks as sellers try to ink deals before interest rates rise, the federal election goes ahead or home price growth softens.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/how-home-buyers-can-spot-a-…
# Australia, Housing market.Why property investors should never fall in love
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)How do you spot a bad investment? There are the obvious rules, like avoiding the best house in the worst street and plunging all your cash into a property on the most exposed part of a flood plain. But the very worst decision you can make? “Buying the house you’ve fallen in love with,” says investment strategist Rasti Vaibhav.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/why-property-investors-shou…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Beyond eviction: alternative approaches to respond to NSW renting households in crisis
Riley Brooke Tenants' Union of NSW (Paywall)The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the financial stability of a large number of NSW renters, all at once, threatening a wave of potential evictions. In response, the NSW Government introduced a range of protections and supports for renting households, including at various times freezes on evictions and frameworks for rent reductions. While these protections were in many ways inadequate, the fact that there was broad community support for government intervention to sustain tenancies tells us several things. [Read on]
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/beyond-eviction-alternative-appr…
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents, State Government.