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
Liveable income and stable, affordable housing are basic needs
Steve Bevington (No paywall)Covid-19 has been overall a major disaster. The pandemic has caused significant distress and upheaval around the world. The most distressing aspect of COVID-19 being, of course, the loss of human life and the health crisis that continues to generate uncertainty in our lives. Strangely, some positive measures have been taken in Australia during this time to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged people in our communities. The COVID-19 payments provided to people on income support and those who lost their jobs during the pandemic temporarily lifted almost one million Australians out of poverty. In addition, actions taken by most state governments to temporarily house people sleeping rough provided respite to many thousands of people and undoubtedly prevented many COVID related deaths. Both measures – the increase in income support and provision of housing for people experiencing street homelessness – demonstrated that we can end poverty in Australia. A secure liveable income and stable, affordable housing are the two basic needs we have as humans. (Third Sector)
https://www.thirdsector.com.au/opinion-liveable-income-and-stabl…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Homelessness, State Government.The climate crisis is global, but councils can offer local solutions
Stephen Smellie The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... At Cop26 this year, we’ll hear about diplomats and heads of state negotiating over targets, but when a river bank bursts or a storm hits, it’s our local councils that are left to clear up the mess. ... As we look to the future, the task facing council workers like me is to think how we make our homes and neighbourhoods more sustainable and more resilient, and maybe even fairer along the way. ... With the right national government support and planning, councils can use their economic power as major employers as well as owners of infrastructure, property and land, and procurers of goods and services, to be the agents of genuinely just transitions.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/22/climate-cr…
# International, Public and community housing, Utilities electricity water gas, Climate change, Housing market, Local Government.Tracey almost lost her family property to a big developer who claimed squatters' rights
Damien Carrick and Sophie Kesteven ABC (No paywall)When 62-year-old Tracey Higgins found herself locked in a legal battle over the ownership of her family's four-acre property in Campbelltown, Sydney, she was surprised by who she faced. It wasn't someone who had taken up residence. Instead, it was a retirement village developer. ... The operator of Australian Retirement Holdings was trying to use squatters' rights — otherwise known as 'adverse possession' — to claim ownership of the property. The hearing began on June 7, 2021, in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. (The Law report)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-23/squatters-rights-fighting…
# Legal significance NSW, Squatting.NSW apartments: New defects insurance scheme to protect off-the-plan buyers
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)Dodgy developers and bad builders who construct shoddy apartment towers that can lead to heartbreak and financial ruin for home-buyers are set to be driven out of NSW with a ground-breaking new defects insurance scheme. In a landmark move by the NSW government, off-the-plan apartment buyers will be offered 10-year insurance against defects in their building and phoenixing developers for the first time in nearly 20 years.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/nsw-apartments-new-defects-insura…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market.Smart homes powered by movement will be the way of the future in sustainable, affordable housing
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)A game-changing way of building homes is being invented that will cut construction and energy costs and is touted as a way of helping Australia reach its net zero target by 2050 while delivering more affordable housing.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/smart-homes-powered-by-movement-w…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Housing market.COVID-19: Tenancy support for Victorian tenants
(No paywall)COVID-19 restrictions are in place in Victoria and are due to lift at midnight on Thursday, 21 October. If you rent in VIC, here’s where to get tenancy support. (rent.com.au)
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Tiny outback town’s offer of ‘free land’ draws interest from the coast to Hong Kong
Natasha May The Guardian (No paywall)It was only ever intended as a solution to a housing crisis in the tiny, outback town of Quilpie, in south-west Queensland. The plan was to build a maximum of five homes by offering “free land” to new home builders in response to the housing shortage being experienced across regional Australia. But the Quilpie council’s offer of grants of up to $12,500 – the equivalent of a new block of land in that area – has attracted a massive response nationally and from overseas, including more than 250 inquiries from as far afield as Hong Kong and India.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/22/tiny-outb…
# Australia, Housing market, Renting culture.Tiny houses could add to housing mix amid affordability crisis, but legal changes needed: experts
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Tiny houses could play a greater role in the nation’s housing mix and offer an alternative to those struggling with high prices and rents if small legal changes were introduced, experts say. Although tiny houses – micro-dwellings that are often set on wheels and cleverly designed to maximise space – have drawn plenty of enthusiasm, potential residents can be put off by the legal grey area they occupy. The dwellings are not in themselves a solution to the housing affordability crisis, and their proponents freely admit tiny living is not for everyone. But they have the potential to house people at risk of homelessness, seniors looking for a granny-flat equivalent next to family, young people facing high rents or house prices, women going through a separation late in life, or minimalists looking to tread more lightly on the earth.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/tiny-houses-could-add-to-housing-…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Housing market, Older people, Young people.