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
Premier should not be deterred from bold move on tax reform
Editorial The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)While, in many respects, Premier Dominic Perrottet wants to continue the policies of his predecessor Gladys Berejiklian, he made it plain on Thursday that he is taking a much bolder approach on a crucial issue of economic reform. Mr Perrottet, at his first estimates hearing as Premier, declared that he was committed to replacing the current system of one-off stamp duty with an annual land tax. ... As the NSW productivity commission said in a white paper in June, stamp duty is the most inefficient way to raise tax because it is a tax on moving homes. It discourages existing home owners from moving when they have the opportunity to live in a new place, such as when they want to take up a work opportunity or move closer to family. It discourages empty nesters looking to downsize.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/premier-should-not-be-deterr…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, Tax.Unprecedented land price increase provokes division across society.
Karl Fitzgerald Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)Friday’s national accounts revealed a record land price increase of $1.72 trillion. That is a 27.6 per cent increase in land values in one year — almost three times the previous record. This has never been seen before and hopefully will never be repeated. ... One thing is certain, land owners enjoy the gains of any government support offered to the market. These huge numbers are hard to fathom. ABS data is typically more conservative than other measures, with it based on council site valuations. The windfall to land holders equated to 86 years of national banking profits. Land prices increased by more in a year than the entire value of all of Australia’s wealthiest companies, as measured by the market capitalisation of the ASX. But yet not one major news channel has reported on it. ... Australia’s land and housing debate is dominated by the need for added supply to address affordability pressures. The pandemic induced hit to net migration of -95,300 was equivalent to an extra 36,653 homes becoming available to the market. Instead of this added supply reducing pressure on land and housing prices, we saw a record surge. This should strike a note of caution at the incessant call for more land rezonings.
https://johnmenadue.com/unprecedented-land-price-increase-provok…
# Australia, Housing market.How to protect yourself from dodgy builders and defects ruining your dream home
Adam Langenberg ABC (No paywall)Building a home can be a stressful time, made more anxiety-inducing if you end up locked in a legal battle over defects instead of moving into the dream home you'll be paying off for decades. Stories of home builders failing to deliver continue to surface, with multiple homeowners telling of issues that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix, or problems so bad their new home needs to be demolished.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-09/tas-how-to-prevent-a-dodg…
# Australia, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.What the Barefoot Investor wants you to know about preparing for fires and floods
Patrick Wright ABC (No paywall)"A lot of people are underinsured. They don't have enough insurance when catastrophe hits," Mr Pape says. "When you're in that situation, you don't get back to normal because you don't have enough money." If you've never experienced a fire or flood first-hand, disasters can seem like an abstract risk. But they do happen — and it pays to be prepared.
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/insurance-how-to-prepare-for-flo…
# Australia, Housing market.The Sydney suburbs that have joined the million-dollar-plus club
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)A string of suburbs across Sydney’s west and south have joined the ranks of the city’s ever-expanding million-dollar club, as seven-figure house sales become the norm in the booming property market.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/the-sydney-suburbs-that-have-join…
# NSW, Housing affordability, Housing market.Revealed: Housing Ombudsman names landlords in latest complaints failure list
Jack Simpson Inside Housing (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The latest report comes just weeks after the ombudsman published a report that listed the worst-performing landlords on dealing with damp and mould. ... Complaint-handling failure orders are issued by the ombudsman when it has taken reasonable steps to seek engagement from a landlord but residents are still unable to progress a complaint. They may also be issued when there appears to be a systemic issue within a landlord’s complaint-handling. ... Hammersmith & Fulham topped the list at 10.8 findings per 10,000 homes, followed by A2Dominion at a rate of 3, Camden Council at 2.5, and Lambeth Council at 2. Richard Blakeway, the housing ombudsman, said: “Complaints provide a valuable opportunity for landlords to listen to residents’ concerns, treat them fairly and put things right where they have gone wrong."
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/revealed-housing-ombud…
# International, Public and community housing, Mould.Chihuahua driving neighbour barking mad
Jimmy Thomson (No paywall)There can be few things worse in strata that finding yourself living next door to an incessantly yapping dog. Actually, there is: living next door to an incessantly yapping dog and its owners won’t do anything about the yapping and the strata committee won’t do anything about the owners. (Flat Chat)
# NSW, Strata, Pets.The federal poverty line struggles to capture the economic hardship that half of Americans face
Celine-Mari Pascale The Conversation (No paywall)From th United States ... Chase shares an apartment with three other people, something he finds stressful. And he is not always confident that he can make his portion of the rent. Between the two jobs, Chase earns less than US$16,000 a year. While it may not sound like a lot, that places him well above the federal poverty line for a single person: $12,760. ... Across the country, millions of low-wage workers like Chase struggle to pay their bills each month, despite holding multiple jobs.
https://theconversation.com/the-federal-poverty-line-struggles-t…
# International, Rent, Families, Housing market, Work, employment.