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
Soaring prices drive call for huge investment in social housing
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Think tanks, universities and the social services sector have warned Australia’s lowest income earners face a shortage of affordable housing for decades unless the federal and state governments work together on a multibillion-dollar investment in social housing.
Two separate reports from the Grattan Institute and the Australian Council of Social Service and University of NSW released on Monday said up to $20 billion needed to be sunk into low-cost housing to make up for a two-decade shortfall that is now being exacerbated by a huge increase in property prices. ... The director of UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre, Professor Hal Pawson said the states alongside the federal government had to increase their investment across the sector. “State governments generally responded well in their emergency actions to help homeless people and protect vulnerable renters during the worst of COVID. And to their credit, some have gone much further by pledging billions for short-term social housing investment,” he said. “But there is little sign of any positive legacy on the systemic reforms and Commonwealth government re-engagement is fundamentally needed to fix our housing system.” And, you will find a blog by Brendan Coates of the Grattan Institute entitled: 'A place to call home: it's time for a Social Housing Future Fund' at: [https://grattan.edu.au/news/a-place-to-call-home-its-time-for-a-social-housing-future-fund/] You can read Euan Black's story in 'The New Daily' at: [https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/11/28/social-housing-future-fund/]. You also can read Melissa Heagney's story in 'Domain' at: [https://www.domain.com.au/news/social-housing-future-fund-needed-to-address-housing-affordability-grattan-institute-1108430/?utm_campaign=strap-masthead&utm_source=smh&utm_medium=link&utm_content=pos5&ref=pos1]
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/soaring-prices-drive-cal…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Housing market, State Government.NSW to lose 3360 affordable homes: See which suburbs get hit the hardest
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)NSW will lose more than 3000 affordable homes over the next five years as the federal government abandons the Rudd-era National Rental Affordability Scheme, a new report says. A Community Housing Industry Association analysis concludes 3360 properties in NSW discounted for low-income households will revert to market rates in the private rental market by 2026.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw-to-lose-3360-affordable-home…
# NSW, Rent, Affordable housing, Federal Government.COVID-19 is a good reason to fix our bad indoor air quality — but how do we do that?
Anna Salleh ABC (No paywall)The health problems associated with poor indoor air has been estimated to cost Australia $12 billion a year. Beyond moulds and viruses, indoor air pollutants include things like toxic chemicals given out by furnishings and building materials, and CO2 breathed out by humans. As well as being a sign of bad ventilation, high CO2 levels can also give people headaches, affect concentration, cognitive abilities and productivity.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-11-25/covid-indoor-air-v…
# Australia, Health, Mould.Senate scuttles Coalition crackdown on charity advocacy work
Paul Karp and Christopher Knaus The Guardian (No paywall)The Senate has disallowed rules cracking down on charities’ advocacy work, a major defeat for the government in the penultimate sitting week of the year.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/25/senate-sc…
# Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government.Want to solve the housing crisis? Address super-charged demand
Steve Pomeroy The Conversation (No paywall)A recent news item about New Zealand’s radical new housing law and whether such measures could work in Canada implies that soaring home prices are due to a lack of supply. In its election platform, the Liberal party proposed to invest $4 billion in a municipal supply accelerator aimed at building more housing. This is the wrong approach. If policy-makers and the newly re-elected government want to improve housing affordability and the ability of young families to become homeowners, they need to turn their attention to the primary driver of price increases — super-charged demand, abetted by the sacred cow of non-taxation of capital gains on a principal residence.
https://theconversation.com/want-to-solve-the-housing-crisis-add…
# International, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.Take the slow train to Clarkefield and I’ll meet you at the community battery
Jan Fisher The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Clarkefield is in the Macedon Ranges – just under an hour away from the city of Melbourne, and even less by train – and it’s fast becoming the little town that could in its vision to create a new style of living. Under a proposed housing development, Clarkefield will become a model mixed use, walkable village and its proponents are working towards the town meeting the Department of Planning’s 20-minute neighbourhood concept of giving people the ability to meet most of their daily needs within a 20-minute return walk from home. But it’s not just about the commute, the developers also aim to make any new housing as green as possible. To this end, the town has secured a grant from the Victorian government under its Neighbourhood Battery Initiative for work on a community battery for future Clarkefield housing.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/take-the-…
# Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Planning and development.Why Perth renters are feeling the crunch compared to those in the east
Holly Thompson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Western Australia has been the envy of many over the past two years, recently listed as the sixth-most livable city in the world due to the largely “pre-pandemic” lifestyle enjoyed across the state. But for those who don’t own their own homes, particularly across lower income brackets, this idealistic lifestyle could feel out of reach as Perth’s rental affordability eclipses major cities on the east coast. The latest Rental Affordability Index, released on Wednesday, has revealed that in Perth, once the cheapest Australian capital city to rent in, rising rental prices and stagnant wages have made it less affordable than both Sydney and Melbourne.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/affordability-…
# Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Communities 'rooted in this soil' face a managed retreat from climate change and rising waters
ABC (No paywall)From the United States ... Stephen F Eisenman, director of strategy for environmental group Anthropocene Alliance, said this was a "huge issue". "By my reckoning, there will be 30 million people who are displaced by mid-century, and there will be mass migrations in the United States," he said. The biggest question is whether the retreats are planned and methodical or unplanned and chaotic.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-26/us-communities-face-a-man…
# International, Climate change, Planning and development.