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
Scrap tax cuts for wealthiest earners and increase low-income support: ACOSS
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Social services groups are urging the federal government to cut generous tax breaks for wealthy earners and increase support for low-income households in a bid to boost spending activity and economic growth. In a pre-budget submission with more than 30 major recommendations, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) encourages the federal government to backflip on upcoming tax cuts for the highest-paid workers, decrease the capital gains tax discount and reduce negative gearing benefits. The group further proposes big spending in a raft of areas aimed at helping the poorest households such as increasing welfare payments, a $7 billion social housing fund and a 50 per cent jump in rent assistance. A 15 per cent levy on investment income of superannuation funds after retirement to help fund aged care is also on the wish list.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/scrap-tax-cuts-for-wealt…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.Disasters can wipe out affordable housing forever unless communities plan ahead – that loss hurts the economy
Shannon Van Zandt The Conversation (No paywall)The tornadoes and wildfires that devastated communities from Kentucky to Colorado in the final weeks of 2021 left thousands of people displaced or homeless. For many of them, it will be months if not years before their homes are rebuilt. That’s especially hard on low-income residents. As a professor of urban planning, I study the impact of disasters on affordable housing, resilience and recovery. [Read on]
https://theconversation.com/disasters-can-wipe-out-affordable-ho…
# International, Affordable housing, Planning and development.What if we relaxed planning but only for more affordable housing? Meet the Woollahra Buyers Club
Mike Brown The Fifth Estate (No paywall)The housing affordability crisis derives, in part, from two conditions: financialisation of housing that favours it as an asset class above its function to provide shelter, and the monopolistic nature of land. These combine to bar access for the less well-off, particularly the young. Yet, a parliamentary enquiry looks set to blame planning as the cause. Here’s one suggestion to improve housing affordability that links all three conditions.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/what-if-w…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Housing market, Planning and development.Why having more affordable sales than rentals is not always a good thing
Georgia Allen (No paywall)A cautionary tale! Georgia shares an easy trap to fall into when looking at affordable housing supply to the detriment of some of the most vulnerable in the housing market. She then shares why it’s a trap, and the importance of affordable rental supply. [Georgia says] 'I was looking at the data for ... Albury City Council, and noticed that there had been more affordable sales in the last 12 months than there were affordable rental listings. ... Great! I thought to myself – more people will be able to buy their own home. For most people, this is their preferred tenure type. But then I thought about it from a practical sense. Could these very low income households really purchase a house?' (.id:informed decisions blog)
https://blog.id.com.au/2022/housing-analysis/why-having-more-aff…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market.Common Ground Housing Model Practice Manual
Tom Alves, Nicola Brackertz, Christian Roggenbuck, Laura Hayes, Rob McGauran, Katherine Sundermann and Natalie Kyneton AHURI (No paywall)This practice manual provides guidance for the delivery, design and funding of congregate supportive housing that is based on Housing First principles, such as the Common Ground model. This guidance relates to both the housing itself and the support service model. The central premise of Housing First approaches is to provide people experiencing homelessness with immediate access to permanent housing to enable them to address their support needs. Whilst engagement with support services is not mandatory, intensive support services are integrated with the housing provision. The Common Ground model draws on Housing First principles, accommodating people experiencing chronic homelessness and low-income households in a congregate setting.
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/services/resource-development/common-gr…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Disability, Homelessness, Welfare.New hope for first-home buyers in return for giving state some equity
Alexandra Smith and Tom Rabe The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)First-home buyers will be able to use a contribution from the state government for their house deposit in return for handing over some equity in the property, in a novel strategy being devised to address Sydney’s affordability crisis. The Perrottet government scheme would help first home buyers enter the property market earlier, and the equity held by the state would be repaid in instalments or when the property was sold. ... Minister for Homes Anthony Roberts said the policy would help people enter the property market who do not have “access to the bank of mum and dad”.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/new-hope-for-first-home-buye…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing affordability, State Government.The hapless politics of our aged care catastrophe
George Megalogenis The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The hard numbers of the pandemic – the death toll, and their influence on the political cycle – caught up with Scott Morrison’s government this week. When the Prime Minister informed Parliament on Tuesday that “some 682 people” who caught the Omicron strain of the coronavirus “have died in aged-care facilities” he would have known that a grim new threshold had been crossed.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-hapless-politics-of-…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Housing market, Older people.‘It’s crazy’: Sydney house prices surge 55 per cent in less than three years
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Sydney house prices have surged more than 55 per cent in less than three years, with the typical house now costing almost $570,000 more than it did in early 2019. The Harbour City’s housing market has made headlines for jumping 33.1 per cent last year alone to a median of $1,601,467, but prices have been largely on the rise since 2019, apart from a brief dip when the pandemic hit, new Domain data shows. ... Grattan Institute household finances program director Brendan Coates said wages growth had not kept pace with rising property prices, meaning the deposit hurdle was an issue for first-home savers. “People are increasingly having to choose between an apartment in the inner-middle suburbs, or they’re choosing a free-standing house on the urban fringe, and it’s not as close to as many jobs and as many opportunities,” he said. “We should reflect on what kind of situation that means we’re creating for younger people.” ... For a growing cohort of Australians, buying a home is out of the question. National Shelter executive officer Adrian Pisarski said they faced rising housing costs as a decline in homeownership levels and social housing levels put pressure on the private rental market from both sides. “We have a reduced safety net, reduced homeownership and a larger [demand for the] rental market with lower supply,” he said. In addition to boosting the supply of social and affordable housing, Mr Pisarski said governments needed to review tax concessions for investors, look to cap rent rises to the consumer price index, improve tenants’ rights and increase Commonwealth rent assistance. You can read a similar article, but about Melbourne, entitled: 'Melbourne house prices jump 35 per cent in less than three years' by Elizabeth Redman at: [https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/melbourne-house-prices-jump-35-per-cent-in-less-than-three-years-20220210-p59vch.html].
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/it-s-crazy-sydney-house-pri…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Young people.