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
Covid confusion as strata mask orders remain
Jimmy Thomson (No paywall)Building managers are taking down signs requiring residents to wear masks, strata committees are telling tenants and owners that masks aren’t required on common property and everybody in strata land is loving their mask-free lives. The trouble is, the law hasn’t changed. The latest public health order and the advice on the NSW Health website both say the same – masks must be worn on indoor common property areas in residential buildings. The confusion can probably be traced back to the Service NSW government app for smartphones which, in its Covid-19 Resources page says, “You must wear a face mask in all non-residential indoor areas, including public transport.” There is no mention of strata common property areas. ... Jane Hearn, Covid-19 spokesperson for the Owners Corporation Network has confirmed this in a note to OCN members, and she is worried that people aren’t aware that the risk of infections will probably increase as restrictions are relaxed. “I don’t think people understand yet that with more mobility and interaction there will be more infection. The risk has just gone up not down (yet),” she says. (Flat Chat)
# Hot topic NSW, Strata, Coronavirus COVID-19.Towards an Australian social housing best practice asset management framework
Andrea Sharam, Sean McNelis, Hyunbum Cho, Callum Logan, Terry Burke and Peter Rossini AHURI (No paywall)This research examines social housing asset management (AM) in Australia and develops a best practice framework that outlines AM processes and criteria for making decisions; reflects the unique aspects of social housing; is flexible enough to be used by different types of social housing providers; provides metrics to drive organisational excellence; and provides the basis for national regulation and policymaking.
# Research alert Australia, Public and community housing, Landlords and agents.Backbenchers push government to take on tax reform
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Liberal backbenchers are calling for wide-ranging tax reform, including clawing back capital growth from wealthy homeowners, in a bid to repair the budget, increase productivity and bolster Australia’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. ... Liberal MP John Alexander also wants an overhaul of CGT on high-priced homes to recoup large value rises from land rezoning and infrastructure developments, and generous tax benefits for property investors to be curtailed when there is substantial market growth. “[I have advocated for] negative gearing laws to be modified in an effort to bring the market back to a fair market of wage earner competing with wage earner for shelter and not giving investors an advantage,” he said. This would be a form of tax lever changing as required, limiting what percentage of an investors’ expenses are deductible and therefore how generous negative gearing tax breaks are for investors in a hot market.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/backbenchers-push-govern…
# Australia, Housing market, Tax.Risky tower developers know their number’s up
David Chandler The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Rebuilding consumer confidence in the NSW construction industry over the past two years has been a mammoth challenge involving many players. At the outset, it was apparent that about 20 per cent of the industry was the main cause of the 39 per cent of apartment buildings that had serious defects. Leading the list of defects were waterproofing problems, which arose in about 23 per cent of affected buildings. The developers who have been the root cause of these problems now know the game has changed. ...
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/risky-tower-developers-know-…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Building defects in strata units: unstoppable force meets immovable object
Stephen Goddard The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)An owner in a new apartment tower at Canterbury said yesterday: “We took a risk buying into a new apartment, but we didn’t realise it would be this kind of risk.” The alleged risk in question is the possible need to evacuate due to structural instability.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/building-defects-in-strata-u…
# Hot topic NSW, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Key safety documents withheld from apartment building investigation, engineer says
Matt O'Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The structural engineer who raised serious concerns about the risk of a Sydney apartment tower collapsing said his fears were amplified by key structural documents for the building being withheld for 18 months. ... The latest revelations come as Greens MP David Shoebridge used parliamentary privilege to accuse the developer of the Canterbury building – Toplace – of being responsible for a “series of dangerous and defective buildings”, including the Skyview apartment complex in Castle Hill in Sydney’s north-west. “Toplace ... continue to construct apartment tower, after apartment tower, after apartment tower, despite this history of defective buildings,” Mr Shoebridge told the NSW Upper House on Thursday. ... The concerns about the Canterbury complex come as a report by the University of NSW has revealed it is almost impossible for purchasers to predict whether their new apartment will have building defects. The report by UNSW’s Futures Research Centre found poor business culture, poor capacity to carry out construction work and poor regulatory oversight in parts of the building industry have made buying an apartment a lottery for many purchasers in Sydney.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/key-safety-documents-withhel…
# Hot topic NSW, Strata, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Delaying rooming house legalization across Toronto puts lives at risk, housing advocates warn
Kate McGillivray (No paywall)From Canada ... Housing advocates say they are deeply disappointed by Toronto city council's decision this week to put off a vote to legalize rooming houses — arguing that the move puts tenants at risk of illegal evictions and even death. Right now, there's a patchwork of rules governing rooming houses in Toronto that makes them illegal in some parts of the city and legal elsewhere. "This issue is never going away, because people need a place to live. [Illegal rooming houses] are going to continue to cater to that," said Geordie Dent, executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations. (CBC)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/delaying-rooming-house-le…
# International, Boarders and lodgers, Housing market, Local Government.End to China’s estate market boom could spell trouble for the economy
George Magnus The Guardian (No paywall)In China today, the buzz is all about how the government there too has stumbled into an energy crisis with widespread power cuts. Yet this and other supply shocks will eventually pass, while the $300bn (£218bn) of debt enveloping China’s second biggest property developer, Evergrande, is of greater significance. It suggests China’s long housing boom is over, and bodes badly for the increasingly troubled economy, with implications for the rest of the world too.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/15/chinas-booming-rea…
# International, Housing market, International, Landlords and agents.