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
Green houses: the great Australian dream can be a reality
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Builders are lobbying for houses to include more energy efficient features that make Australian homes greener. Home owners and architects say it’s possible to make small modifications to houses to improve the energy efficiency of conventional materials. ... But architects, environmental groups, many councils, tenants’ unions and social welfare groups say the current changes [to NatHERS] don’t go far enough. In a joint statement, they say delays of even three years would leave hundreds of thousands of households paying more in energy bills and incurring much greater costs to retrofit.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/green-houses-the-great-australia…
# Australia, Climate change, Fixtures - lights, aircon etc, Minimum habitability standards.We must fix our repairs problems – even if it means building fewer homes
Alison Inman Obe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... It’s shaming that tenants find their best chance at redress for repairs is asking a student to embarrass their landlord on social media. ... Armed only with a camera phone and a Twitter account, [Kwajo Tweneboa, the young social housing tenant] has pushed social housing to the top of the agenda in ways that must leave comms teams across the sector open-mouthed.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/we-must-fix-our-repairs-…
# International, Public and community housing, Repairs.Most Sydney councils losing urban forest cover – how green is your neighbourhood?
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More than half of Sydney’s councils have lost urban forest cover since 2013, as experts warn that suburbs lacking sufficient trees may become unliveable. Development pressures, poor planning and a failure to value trees have been blamed for the decreased tree canopy in some parts of Sydney even as councils develop urban greening strategies and the state government seeks to plant millions of trees by 2030.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/most-sydney-councils-losing-urba…
# NSW, Climate change, Local Government, Planning and development.Where you can buy a home in Sydney for less than 2016 prices
Kate Burke and Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Apartment prices across dozens of Sydney suburbs are lower than they were five years ago, with pockets of oversupply and reduced buyer demand in some markets pushing median prices down. While the harbour city’s median apartment price reached a record high of about $802,000 last quarter, Domain data shows typical unit prices in a string of inner suburbs, and many more in the city’s west, were lower than they were five years earlier.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/where-you-can-buy-a-home-in…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market.And now for the mosquito-borne disease threat to our warming cities
Rose Mary Petrass The Fifth Estate (No paywall)In an increasingly hot and humid climate, citizens and urban design professionals are looking for greening solutions such as vertical garden walls, tree coverage and parklands. City greening makes for healthier populations, cooler temperatures, happiness and liveability. But plants and the water that feeds them can invite unwelcome guests into homes and workplaces. Mosquitos thrive around water for reproduction. Urban greening is inadvertently creating a pest and disease problem for city-dwellers.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/hospitals/and-now-for-t…
# Australia, Health, Planning and development.Moving west
Elise Kinsella ABC (No paywall)For years, affordable housing has attracted families to Melbourne’s west. But after a long housing boom and surge in real estate prices, residents say their neighbourhoods are changing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-20/melbourne-west-altona-hou…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Planning and development.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.