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
Could Australia learn from Singapore to make housing more affordable?
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)Singapore is an island city-state with about 300,000 more residents than greater Sydney, but far less than 10 per cent of its land area. Yet, according to economist Cameron Murray, it has managed to boost home ownership for 25-34-year-olds from 60 to nearly 90 per cent over the past four decades, at a time when the percentage of Australians that age who own a home has plunged from 60 to 45 per cent. So, how have they done it? "What Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, provides mortgages, and allows buyers to use their compulsory retirement savings [what Australians call superannuation] for both a deposit and repayments," Murray says.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-06/could-australia-learn-fro…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, International.Second step on Sydney’s property ladder, from unit to house, is now a giant leap
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)The price gap between Sydney houses and units has more than tripled in the past 30 years, making the plight of the upgrader just as hard as their first crack at the property market.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/second-step-on-sydney-s-pro…
# NSW, Strata, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing affordability.NYCHA to Prioritize Collection of Long-Term and High-Dollar Arrears Accounts
(No paywall)From New York ... Today, as part of NYCHA’s effort to re-imagine how it approaches evictions, the Authority announced that 90 percent of the 34,000 rental non-payment cases that existed in housing court as of March 2021 have been resolved without judicial intervention. Moving forward, NYCHA will prioritize cases for accounts that owe significant amounts of arrears that extend past two years. To date, there are 2,300 such accounts comprising an estimated $44 million in past-due rent. (New York City Housing Authority)
https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nycha/about/press/pr-2022/pr-20220203…
# International, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Tribunal NCAT, Coronavirus COVID-19.‘Living in swelter boxes’: January 27 the deadliest day for heatwave deaths
Miki Perkins The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)January 27 is the deadliest day in Australia for heat-related deaths, with heatwaves posing a greater threat to life than any other natural hazard including bushfires and floods. ... Most of the fatalities that occurred indoors happened in older houses, highlighting the need for governments to find inexpensive ways to support people living in public housing or renting to adapt their homes to extreme heat.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/living-in-swel…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Climate change, Health, Minimum habitability standards.‘Inadequate’ support for aged care as COVID crisis continues
Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The surge workforce organised by the federal government to support Omicron-stricken aged care homes has been labelled “inadequate” and is covering only a fraction of the weekly staffing shortfall, prompting the sector to renew its calls for urgent support from the defence forces.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/inadequate-support-for-a…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Housing market, Older people, Work, employment.Why Falinski is wrong on housing – we’ve got far more supply than we need
Karl Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Minter The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Coalition MP Jason Falinski, chair of the federal government’s Housing Supply and Affordability Inquiry, talks the talk when it comes to housing. “We have created some of the least-affordable housing in the world… it is akin to intergenerational theft.” The government touted the inquiry as a genuine investigation into the cause of Australia’s housing woes. However, Falinski had already decided what the solution was even before the inquiry began. A neutral inquiry would not have included the word “Supply” in the title. Instead it would have focused on affordability – the key issue. ... But here’s some facts that are inconvenient for Falinski’s s narrative. [Read on]
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/why-falin…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.Australia is an over-borrowed building society
Alan Kohler The New Daily (No paywall)Permanent building societies were heavily geared financial outfits, owned by members, that specialised in residential real estate. They were all the rage in the 1980s, until suddenly they weren’t, when interest rates went up. The leader of the pack, Pyramid Building Society, borrowed too much for expensive properties, and when the music stopped in 1989, it couldn’t find a chair and went bust. Then the species went extinct. Oh dear. That’s what Australia is now: A permanent building society that has borrowed too much for expensive properties, is now facing higher interest rates and, as it happens, is about to have an AGM to elect directors.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2022/02/07/real-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.How to build wildfire-resistant communities on the wildland fringe
Jeanne Homer The Conversation (No paywall)From the United States ... Across the West, thousands of people are deciding what to do about homes that have been destroyed by wildfires in recent months. Those planning to rebuild will be looking for ways to make their new homes and neighborhoods as fire-resistant as possible.
https://theconversation.com/how-to-build-wildfire-resistant-comm…
# International, Minimum habitability standards.