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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
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Archive
Hong Kong proposes 10,000 public housing units to be built on Fanling Golf Course
(No paywall)Hong Kong’s development chief on Friday revealed a drastically-revised plan that would see up to 10,000 public housing flats to be built on part of the Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling, more than double the number previously proposed. (The Standard)
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/4/183180/Ho…
# International, Public and community housing.Introductory Remarks to Parliamentary Inquiry hearing: Housing affordability and Supply in Australia, 17 November 2021
Bill Randolph and Hal Pawson City Futures (No paywall)... Adequate housing supply is a key component of a healthy housing market. But we would argue that the causes of housing unaffordability are complex and call for consideration of both housing supply and housing demand and the underlying drivers on both sides of the market. Boosting home ownership is a key objective that we fully support. But, as argued in our recent report, ‘Housing – Taming the Elephant in the Economy’, Australia’s home ownership system has transformed from its historic function of spreading wealth into a modern day system that concentrates wealth and drives growing inequality. Over-preferencing existing home owners and investors has increasingly excluded young adults from access. ... The Australian Government could play an important role in supporting such diversity. Not only by reforming key tax settings, but also through influencing urban development. [You will find a link to the submission by City Futures in the third paragraph of this article.]
https://blogs.unsw.edu.au/cityfutures/blog/2021/11/introductory-…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax.Tenant News
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)'Renting Matters!' podcasts, Moratorium ends, transition period begins, 'No grounds evictions', The real housing crisis, The emergency in the regions, 'Build Back Better' ... and lots more news
https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=29c79d2825cb376b3f0b06385&id…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Rent, Starting a tenancy, Strata, Campaigns and law reform, Climate change, Coronavirus COVID-19, Estate renewal, Housing market, Regional NSW.What’s needed to help older tenants age in public housing?
Debbie Faulkner, Julia Verdouw, Peta Cook, Selina Tually, Edgar Liu, Bruce Judd, Helen Barrie and Veronica Coram AHURI (No paywall)The proportion of public housing tenants aged 55 or older across Australia has risen from 20 per cent in 2006 to 37 per cent in 2016, resulting in the need for changes to public housing policy and practice, new AHURI has revealed. Read more, with a link to the full publication, at: [https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/369]
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/news/What%E2%80%99s-needed-to-…
# Research alert Australia, Public and community housing, Older people.November 2021 News
Shelter NSW (No paywall)Check out the latest housing news from Shelter NSW ...
Sydney. What kind of city do we want?
Regional Housing Taskforce recommendations released
Shelter NSW AGM 2021
Shelter NSW CEO speaks to NSW Parliamentary Committee about social and affordable housing – and ‘meanwhile use’
Sydney Alliance Local Organising for Council Elections
One of NSW’s largest councils one big step closer to an affordable housing contribution scheme
'Housing and Homelessness: The Local Landscape' - City of Newcastle invites you to a forum
Houses are not bananas - the regional housing crisis
Shelter NSW CEO, John Engeler, elected Chair of National Shelter
Housing policy should address climate change, not exacerbate it
Sydney Social Housing - 'Two Point Perspective' Podcast
Hands Off Glebe Community 'Picket'
Sydney Olympic Park 2050 – Have Your Say
https://mailchi.mp/shelternsw/shelter-nsw-november-ebulletin?e=9…
# NSW, Campaigns and law reform.Accessibility reforms: “If you’ve got builders having to do one thing in NSW and another thing in Queensland it’s going to drive them nuts”
Duncan Murray The Fifth Estate (No paywall)It’s been more than 10 years since Australian government ministers agreed to pursue making homes more accessible for elderly and disabled people through provisions in the national building codes. In April of this year, measures including wider door frames and corridors, stepless entryways and showers, and reinforced bathroom walls finally found their way into the updated 2022 National Construction Code (NCC). However, with individual states and territories having the option to opt out of the changes the country is split, largely along political lines, as to who will step in to avoid them becoming state law.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/accessibi…
# Australia, Disability, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Older people.Dark roofs to be banned in NSW, planning minister says
Anne Davies and Elias Visontay The Guardian (No paywall)The NSW government will move to ban dark roofs as part of its push to deliver more sustainable housing and reach its target of net zero emissions by 2050. Speaking to the Committee for Sydney, planning minister Rob Stokes foreshadowed the policy switch to ensure all new housing has light-coloured roofing. He said recent University of NSW research commissioned by the federal government found Sydney’s ambient temperatures could be reduced by up to 2.4C if dark roofing was ditched across the city. A light coloured roof could reduce temperatures inside the home by up to 10 degrees during a heatwave. You can read a similar story by Angus Thompson in the 'Sydney Morning Herald' at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/dark-roofs-ditched-commercial-buildings-must-be-net-zero-from-2022-nsw-planning-minister-20211117-p599pm.html]
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/17/dark-roof…
# NSW, Climate change, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Planning and development, State Government.Spain takes on private equity landlords as cost of housing soars
Daniel Dombey (Paywall)Spain’s leftwing government is championing rent controls as property costs rise across Europe, part of a proposed housing law that it says will protect vulnerable tenants against investment funds and other big landlords. ... Ione Belarra, leader of the radical Podemos party that supports the bill, said it would right the balance in a sector transformed by the eurozone financial crisis over a decade ago and the arrival of institutional funds. Investment group Blackstone is now Spain’s biggest landlord. “The big investment funds saw a niche here to speculate in the housing business,” Belarra, who is also Spain’s social affairs minister, told the Financial Times in an interview. “Now we are beginning to put limits to this and say to the big landlords that they can keep doing housing business, but not at any price,” she added. “Not at the price that there are evictions, or that people have to pay more than 30 per cent of their income in rent.” Blackstone, which now owns close to 30,000 homes in Spain, declined to comment. (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/9ef1eb29-04a5-441f-ac77-f6a0fb7d2d85
# International, Eviction, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.