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
Is Sydney still affordable in 2021? ‘Only if you have a lot of money’
Josh Dye The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Affordability and cost of living concerns have long dogged Sydney, and the dizzying rise of house prices hasn't helped. The nation's most recent internal migration data showed record numbers of people leaving capital cities for the regions, including almost 40,000 people exiting Sydney in the 12 months to March. ... [Committee for Sydney chief executive Gabriel] Metcalf says it's worth making "pretty big changes" to fix Sydney's issues, starting with abolishing tax incentives that make real estate a haven for investors. "The declining rate of homeownership in Australia is the smoking gun that proves the current settings are not working," he said.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/is-sydney-still-affordable-i…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents.A decade to save – steep hurdles for first-home buyers
Prashant Mehra The New Daily (No paywall)First-home buyers in Australia now need more than 10 years just to save a 20 per cent deposit to own a home, a report says, underlining the worsening housing affordability crisis across the country. The latest ANZ CoreLogic Housing Affordability report estimates that based on households saving 15 per cent of their gross annual income, it would take a record 10.8 years to save a deposit for a house and nine years for a unit.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/11/26/first-hom…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.House prices depend on interest rates: as one goes up, the other will fall
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)It's very likely house prices, at least in Australia's two biggest cities, will fall at some point over the next couple of years. That's the view of three of the four major banks, whose businesses are skewed heavily to residential mortgages — so they have an incentive to get this right, if not perhaps to understate the prospect of declines. ANZ is tipping a modest 4 per cent national dip in 2023, Westpac 5 per cent and CBA is the most bearish, predicting a 10 per cent slide. It's also the forecast of many more independent economists and real estate experts.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-28/house-prices-depend-on-in…
# Australia, Housing market.Rental prices in Port Fairy increase amid concerns for at-risk people post pandemic
Daniel Miles and Steve Martin ABC (No paywall)Business is booming across regional Victoria as the state emerges from its second lockdown, and so it seems are rental prices. According to the latest rental market information from property data company PropTrack, the median rental price across regional Victoria has gone up as much as 10 per cent in the last 12 months. The weekly price for a rental property in the Bendigo region has jumped by 11.43 per cent, the largest jump in Victoria, while prices in the Hume and North West regions jumped by more than 8 per cent respectively. During the same time, the average rent dropped by 3.33 per cent in Melbourne's Inner-East and stayed relatively stable in Melbourne's CBD.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-27/port-fairy-rental-crisis-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Housing market.‘No need for overdevelopment’: Labor, Liberal councillors united in opposition to apartment towers
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Labor and Liberal councillors have criticised plans to build two 10-storey apartment towers in Bondi Junction, as congestion and overdevelopment loom as flashpoints in council elections next week.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/no-need-for-overdevelopment-…
# NSW, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Local Government.‘Out of touch’: Labor slams government for ignoring surging cost of rents
Colin Brinsden The New Daily (No paywall)Renters have seen the cost of keeping a roof over their heads skyrocket over the past year, making it harder to get ahead when wages have flatlined. Labor’s housing spokesman Jason Clare says this is the biggest bill that millions of Australians pay every week and many are struggling to keep up. “The fact that Scott Morrison says this isn’t a problem shows just how out of touch he is,” Mr Clare said in a statement on Sunday. “He needs to get out of The Lodge and into the real world.” He said while rent has skyrocketed across most of the country, in regional Australia it is through the roof.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/11/28/labor-rip…
# Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing market.What happens when your builder goes bust? For some, their life savings disappear
Fiona Blackwood ABC (No paywall)Kate and Rod Iskander's building site with views across Hobart's River Derwent is littered with bricks and hardening bags of cement after their builder stopped work on their home two months ago. They say they are financially out of pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars and are faced with the prospect they may not be able to finish their home. ... The couple are calling for the Tasmanian government to agree to an inquiry to look at how consumer protections can be strengthened.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-29/tas-family-despair-as-bui…
# Australia, Home ownership, State Government.Homeowners to face higher insurance costs due to construction boom
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Homeowners are being told to prepare for big jumps in insurance payments, with soaring construction costs leaving experts warning households are at risk of being under-insured.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/homeowners-to-face-highe…
# Australia, Housing market.