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
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.Social landlord evictions down 61% compared to pre-pandemic
Grainne Cuppe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Social landlords are evicting tenants at less than a third of the rate they were before the pandemic, new government figures have revealed. Before the pandemic, social landlords represented 60% of all eviction proceedings, while now they represent 33%. In contrast, private landlords made up the largest proportion of possession claims at 41% (5,912) in the last quarter of 2021... A ban on bailiff-enforced evictions was introduced in December 2021 in response to the rise in coronavirus cases. The ban meant that landlords were still able to carry out evictions via the courts, however bailiffs were not allowed to enter households to enact the evictions. The ban, which followed a complete moratorium on evictions between March and September 2020, came to an end in June last year. It emerged last month that nearly 400 households were made homeless every day in the three full months after the eviction ban was lifted. Homelessness charity Shelter said the eviction ban “helped keep many renters safe in their homes during the pandemic”. Now this protection has gone, evictions are picking up and renters, who faced job losses and furlough, are struggling even more,” it said. It warned of a further wave of evictions due to the cost of living crisis.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/social-landlord-evicti…
# International, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Ontario’s ‘affordable housing’ task force report does not address the real problems
Brian Doucet The Conversation (No paywall)From Cananda ... The province of Ontario’s task force has released 55 recommendations to address the growing housing crisis. But if an affordable housing report explicitly states that building affordable housing is outside its mandate and never once mentions the term “rent control,” is it really an affordable housing report? While there are some important ideas within this report, particularly to aid middle-class households that have recently become victims of a housing crisis, it is unlikely to make housing more affordable for those on low and moderate incomes who have struggled to find adequate shelter for decades.
https://theconversation.com/ontarios-affordable-housing-task-for…
# International, Rent, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing market, Planning and development.Sydney apartment investors fear debt trap as levies skyrocket
Anna Patty Domain (No paywall)Investors from retirees to single mothers on low incomes fear losing their properties after their strata levies jumped from under $2000 per quarter to more than $10,000 for building repairs they had no say in approving. Hundreds of owners who paid about $200,000 for each apartment in the UniLodge student accommodation building on Broadway have been ordered to pay the levy by strata managing agent Bright and Duggan, which a tribunal appointed to take full control over the owners’ corporation. The building had become run down and repair and maintenance works were necessary for its structural integrity, Bright and Duggan said. ... Many of the apartments in the heritage building have been vacant or rented at reduced fees since the coronavirus pandemic prevented international students from returning to Sydney. UniLodge subsidiary Sydney Campus manages the historic building and student rentals, from which it takes a commission.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/sydney-apartment-investors-…
# NSW, Repairs, Strata, Students.What Australia’s median house price buys you overseas
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Australia’s property market has boomed over the past year. The national median house price hit $1,066,133 in December, on Domain data, the first time it has risen beyond $1 million. With such sky-high capital gains, some homeowners will be wondering whether to cash in and buy something else, possibly in another country. So, just what can our median house price bag you overseas?
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/what-australia-s-median-hou…
# Australia, Housing market, International.