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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Zoned out: how land use restrictions divide the nation
Peter Tulip Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)Housing policies ensure continual wealth gains for current home owners while leaving renters and potential buyers locked out of the market. Housing policy is a battle between the haves and the have-nots. The haves are the current generation of wealthy home owners. They have enjoyed large capital gains over the past few decades and are sitting on property worth hundreds of thousands – often millions – of dollars. They support the policies that have delivered these windfalls. The have-nots are renters and future generations of potential home owners. These groups are disproportionately young and on lower incomes. ... there are large positive externalities from urban density – it boosts wages, promotes technological progress and reduces carbon emissions. For both equity and efficiency reasons, we should be encouraging higher density housing instead of stopping it.
https://johnmenadue.com/zoned-out-how-land-use-restrictions-divi…
# Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market, Planning and development.The Real Story Of Mortgage Stress
Martin North (No paywall)This is material drawn from several recent shows on this and other channels, explaining mortgage and household stress and what is happening in the current environment – with data to December 2021 and beyond. (Digital Finance Analytics Blog)
https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/the-real-story-of-mortg…
# Video Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.More than 7000 COVID-19 cases in aged care as hundreds of homes locked down
Lucy Carroll The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More than 1100 aged care homes across Australia are battling COVID-19 outbreaks, with 7014 active cases in residents and aged care workers. Federal health department data released on Friday night shows the number of facilities with coronavirus outbreaks has more than doubled in a week, an increase from 495 reported on January 8. The spike in infections comes as aged care advocates this week called for mandated visitor policies to be introduced, with thousands of residents plunged into ongoing lockdowns and the sector facing severe staffing shortages.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/more-than-7000-covid-19-cases-in…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people, Welfare.A Portland land value tax would improve equity for homeowners, incentivize development
Katy Swordfisk (No paywall)From the United States ... Shifting Oregon’s property tax structure to a land-value tax base could improve equity among homeowners of various income levels, according to a study conducted by Portland State University's Northwest Economic Research Center (NERC).
https://www.pdx.edu/news/psu-study-portland-land-value-tax-would…
# Research alert International, Housing market, Tax.Landlords, Tenant Lawyers Clash Over Underfunded Rent Relief
Suzannah Cavanaugh (Paywall)From the United States, landlord group accuses Legal Aid Society of “encouraging fraud” by advising tenants to shield themselves from eviction by applying for rent relief. (The Real Deal New York)
https://therealdeal.com/2022/01/14/landlords-tenant-lawyers-clas…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.Will climate change spell the end of coastal living as we know it?
Maani Truu ABC (No paywall)When Chris Rogers returned to the NSW Central Coast after a stint living overseas, he was eager to embrace the quintessential Australian lifestyle — a home where his kids could swim in the ocean whenever they liked and he could walk along the beach he loves every day. But more than a year after powerful swells battered Wamberal Beach, causing massive erosion beneath the waterfront properties, he's been left fearing his home could be washed away in the next storm surge.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-17/will-climate-change-put-a…
# NSW, Climate change, Housing market, Planning and development.‘There’s injustice’: Bronx fire victims mourned amid frustration and anger
The Guardian (No paywall)A Bronx community in New York city gathered on Sunday to pay its final respects to loved ones, a week after a fire filled a high-rise apartment building with thick, suffocating smoke that killed 17 people, including eight children. ... Officials blamed a faulty space heater in a third-floor apartment for the blaze, which spewed plumes of suffocating smoke that quickly rose through the stairwell of the 19-story building. Some residents said space heaters were sometimes needed to supplement the building’s heat and that repairs weren’t always timely.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/16/bronx-fire-victi…
# International, Affordable housing.The Singapore-inspired idea for using super for housing that could cut costs 50%
Cameron Murray The Conversation (No paywall)During the past four decades in which home ownership among Australians aged 25-34 has sunk from around 60% to 45%, home ownership among the same age group in Singapore has climbed from around 60% to 88%. There’s a good chance that’s because Singapore is doing something right. 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. There’s more to it than that. It limits eligibility by income and age, requires owners to hang on to the property for five years, and limits their resale to only other eligible buyers.
https://theconversation.com/the-singapore-inspired-idea-for-usin…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, International.