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
Relief for home buyers: Price boom may be over
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Property price growth in Melbourne and Sydney has stalled, as affordability constraints and higher fixed-interest rate mortgage rates start to bite and crimp demand. That will be good news for first home buyers struggling to save fast enough for a deposit. The property price boom has pushed 70 per cent of homes out of reach of buyers on middle incomes, despite record-low interest rates, with those able to buy forced to save for an extra year to have a big enough deposit.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/relief-for-home-buyers-pr…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.What you need to know before renovating an investment property
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)Because while it can be good fun with an investment property to pull out a rickety old kitchen and replace it with acres of gleaming marble, and to transform a grotty bathroom into a dazzling white spa, many amateurs discover that they’ve spent far more than they could ever recoup. “It’s easy to get carried away and overcapitalise on an investment property,” Belinda Botzolis, valuer and senior property strategist at Metropole Property, says.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/what-you-need-to-know-befor…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents.RBA to gradually increase rates to avoid mortgage shock, top economists predict
Shane Wright and Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)An increase in household debt during the COVID-19 recession will force the Reserve Bank to only gradually increase borrowing costs, the nation’s leading economists believe, although they warn official interest rates could easily climb above 3 per cent.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rba-to-gradually-increas…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.A tale of two dwellings: Why more Sydneysiders are buying second homes
Sue William Domain (No paywall)Deborah [Thomas, the former editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly and now the chief executive of kids’ cancer charity Camp Quality], 65, together with vodka manufacturer husband Vitek Czernuszyn, 68, are just two of a slew of Sydneysiders who’ve bought homes in the country, or on the coast, since the advent of the pandemic and are spending much more time there. Many are now dividing their lives between their two bases, some renting either out when they’re not using them to make it less expensive, but others managing to keep both for their exclusive use. It’s all part of a trend both in Australia, and globally, to buy a holiday home that is almost equal to, or even better than, the main residence.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/a-tale-of-two-dwellings-why…
# NSW, Housing market, Short-term holiday letting.The true cost of eviction
Jemima Mowbray Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)We all know the pain of moving - the stress, anxiety, and high costs involved. Lots of us hold off from moving even when we want to because it just seems way too expensive. Now put yourself in renters’ shoes. We move more often than our owner-occupier neighbours. Over 80% of private renters have moved in the last 5 years; a third have moved between 2 - 3 times; and 10% have moved 5 times or more. For many of us – up to 30% of renters – the move is not our choice. Our recent special report: 'Eviction, Hardship and the Housing Crisis' looks closely at the immediate and direct costs of moving. ... Eviction is a driver of poverty over the medium to longer term. Eviction is associated with long term impacts on employment, health and education outcomes, and an increased demand on health and housing services. ... We often talk about our housing system as in crisis. There seems to be general agreement we are experiencing a ‘housing crisis’ in relation to affordability. ... Given the high costs associated with eviction overall, in terms of immediate, direct costs but also the longer-term harm and substantial financial costs to the household but also to governments and the broader community – how can we better discourage the use of eviction, except where absolutely necessary? Where eviction is necessary, how can we better minimise or mitigate impacts and more equitably distribute the associated costs? You will find a link to the full report at: [https://www.tenants.org.au/news/tenants-union-nsw-publishes-special-report-eviction-hardship-and-housing-crisis].
# Must read, Hot topic, TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, No-grounds evictions.Outasite Lite
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Disclosure – Tribunal clarifies duty ... The obligation on an operator to provide a disclosure statement in the approved form before entering into a site agreement is straightforward. The purpose of the obligation is also clear – to enable a prospective purchaser to make an informed choice about the community. Given the clarity of obligation and purpose, it is difficult to understand why disclosure is becoming a major source of dispute. Perhaps a recent Tribunal case involving Hometown Australia will provide some answers.
https://mailchi.mp/tenants.org.au/duty-of-disclosure-wills-and-p…
# NSW, Land lease communities, Tribunal NCAT, Campaigns and law reform.The Guardian view on unaffordable homes: building injustice into the economy
Editorial The Guardian (No paywall)Britain’s housing stock is being turned into an asset class as a consequence of the excessive financialisation of the UK economy. For those who own their homes, these buildings serve a dual purpose: they provide shelter, and function as investments. For around 2.5 million landlords, who between them accounted for 18% of all property purchases in 2019, they are only investments. If the underlying problem is a lack of homes, then one solution may be to build more. But if the problem is landlords, and the fact that property owners are incentivised by rising prices, as well as their desire for more space (a desire that may have been augmented by the switch to home working), to buy as much of it as they can, then building more homes won’t help. It could even make matters worse, by creating more opportunities to extract exorbitant rents from those who have an income but lack the capital for a deposit, or the confidence to take on a huge debt. [Read on]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/21/the-guardi…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.New report calls for permanent hardship protections for south west Sydney renters
Kayla Osborne (No paywall)Renters across NSW have felt the financial pinch of COVID-19 lockdowns over the past two years. Especially those living in south-west Sydney, who experienced harsher lockdown restrictions than the rest of the state. However, transitional provisions to support tenants and landlords following the 2021 Eviction Moratorium ended earlier this month. As these emergency protections fall away, a new report from the Tenants' Union of NSW has found NSW tenancy laws weren't up to the job of supporting renters still struggling as a result of the crisis. The union's policy and advocacy manager Jemima Mowbray said the organisation's south-west Sydney support service had noted an increase in 'no grounds' evictions over the past few years. ... The union's chief executive Leo Patterson Ross says the fact that emergency measures were needed during the height of the pandemic demonstrated that the NSW renting system as it stands is not able to respond. "Life crises like losing a job, family breakdown, death in the family, illness or injury impact renting households every day, and can cause significant hardship," he said. know early intervention and support can reduce and prevent that hardship, saving the government thousands more in costly programs and avoiding social housing waiting list blowouts. (Campbelltown Macarthur Advertiser)
https://www.macarthuradvertiser.com.au/story/7624679/new-report-…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, No-grounds evictions, Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services.