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
Regulator calls time on housing market party, tightens standards
Clancy Yeates and Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Prospective home buyers will have tens of thousands of dollars cut off the amount they can borrow after the banking regulator stepped in to tighten lending standards in the face of soaring house prices and growing concern about the stability of the financial system. ... Under the changes announced by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), banks will be forced to use more cautious interest rate assumptions when assessing new customers. The change is expected to reduce new customers’ borrowing capacity by about 5 per cent. Economists and banks said the changes would take some heat out of the property boom - which has seen Sydney house prices jump more than 20 per cent in the last year - but they were unlikely to cause prices to fall. Read a second report in the SMH at: [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/apra-takes-modest-step-into-housing-with-political-echoes-of-1961-20211006-p58xox.html] Read similar reports in the ABC at: [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-06/apra-tightens-home-loan-rules/100516758] and [https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-07/apra-crackdown-on-maximum-borrowing-limit-hits-first-home-buyers/100518444] Read another report in The New Daily at: [https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/10/06/home-loan-apra/]
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/apra-unveils…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Call to use vacant student accommodation as social housing
Angus Thompson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Vacant student accommodation and hotels should be made available for temporary social housing solutions as housing affordability worsens throughout the state, councils say. Canterbury-Bankstown Council, which has the most social housing in the Sydney region, said various accommodation types, including hotels, motels, boarding houses and secondary residences, could be co-ordinated as vacant options for financially vulnerable people or essential workers. The nearby Inner West Council agreed ... that the significant reduction in international students created an opportunity, singling out new-generation boarding houses, also called co-living spaces, as suitable for social housing.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/call-to-use-vacant-student-a…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Local Government, Students.Coming Home
(No paywall)Coming Home traces the lives of three women from childhood to adulthood through their experiences of homelessness, to eventually finding safety and a place to call home. Hosted by Kate Lawrence, this podcast looks deeply at how women's homelessness is fundamentally different to men's and the systemic drivers that lead to women becoming homeless: gender inequality, economic disadvantage, family violence, and the unaffordable housing market in Australia. (Spreaker)
# Video Australia, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Personal stories, Women.Rewiring Australian households could save them up to $6,000 a year, research finds
Andy Park ABC (No paywall)As Glasgow looms over the federal government's climate change goals, new research could help both the major parties embrace more aggressive emissions reduction targets by saving up to $6,000 a year on voters' household energy costs. Read the same story at: [https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/clean-energy-cash-splash-would-cut-household-bills-4200-by-2035-20211004-p58x2w.html]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-04/rewiring-australian-house…
# Research alert Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Housing market.Pandora Papers show mystery foreign investors making it harder for Australians to buy property
Matthew Doran ABC (No paywall)Australians trying to crack into the property market are facing the extra hurdle of competing against mystery foreign investors, according to corporate transparency experts and the federal opposition. Almost 12 million leaked documents — known as the Pandora Papers — have shed light on how complicated, offshore business structures are being used in Australia to shroud corporate ownership in secrecy. "It's actually impacting on everyday Australians," Transparency International Australia chief executive Serena Lillywhite told the ABC.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-05/pandora-papers-show-impac…
# Australia, Housing market, International, Landlords and agents.Regional housing report highlights challenges facing councils
(No paywall)An independent report on housing and the planning system in regional NSW has highlighted the challenges faced by local councils in meeting demand. The Regional Housing Taskforce report details feedback from consultation with more than 500 people across regional NSW, including 95 regional councils. ... Councils say the number of people moving to regional NSW has accelerated, and identified the need to deliver more affordable housing. (Government News)
https://www.governmentnews.com.au/regional-housing-report-highli…
# NSW, Affordable housing, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.More than half of apartment dwellers would not invite a neighbour into their home
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened feelings of isolation among apartment dwellers, with more than one-third saying they know no one in their building well enough to have a conversation. Macquarie University researchers also found 57 per cent of people living in high-rise apartments had no neighbours they would ask a favour of or invite into their home.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/more-than-half-of-apartment-dwel…
# NSW, Strata, Coronavirus COVID-19, Neighbours.Landlords angry at tax loophole for social housing
Miriam Bell (No paywall)From New Zealand ... A surprise exemption from interest deductibility rules for landlords with properties used for social housing has angered some investors who claim it will tip the scales against working families. This week the Government announced the details of its controversial new policy which removed people’s ability to deduct mortgage interest on rental properties from taxes. (Stuff)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/renting/126551624/landl…
# International, Rent, Landlords and agents, Tax.