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
Higher Land Tax doesn't equal Higher Rent
Heidi Heck (No paywall)If you have been in Hobart lately, you will have seen the Tasmanian Residential Rental Property Owners Association’s (TRRPOA) sign Higher tax = Higher rent. This sign is part of the TRRPOA’s campaign to push for lower land taxes on investment properties in Tasmania. The TRRPOA is implying either a direct correlation between land tax and rent prices or that the current land tax will cause investors to leave the market, creating a supply shortage in rentals. To put it bluntly, either proposition these signs set forth is wrong. A higher tax might be bad for investor profits, but it doesn’t cause an increase in rent prices. (Tasmanian Times)
https://tasmaniantimes.com/2021/09/higher-tax-%E2%89%A0-higher-r…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Tax.Rental vacancy rates down or steady across capital cities in September, new figures show
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Fewer properties are being left empty in Australia’s biggest rental markets, with vacancy rates falling or holding steady in each of the capital cities, new figures show.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/rental-vacancy-rates-down-or-stea…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.Stamp duty crimps property listings, pushing up prices
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The increasing impost of stamp duty is restricting the number of properties that come onto the market, contributing to record-high prices as buyers compete for tight supply.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/stamp-duty-c…
# Australia, Housing market, Tax.National energy program would boost economy and save power bills, ACOSS report finds
Norman Hermant and Lucy Kent ABC (No paywall)Like a lot of low-income people in Australia, Bronwyn Stretton knows all too well the creeping fear that arrives with summer. Until recently, much of her 1950s home in Geelong became uninhabitable when temperatures rose. ... Three years ago, she was part of an energy assistance program run by the Brotherhood of St Laurence. That gave her the money for insulation, an air conditioning and heating unit, and blinds to block out the hot sun. "It's made it more comfortable for us and made me less panicky about the extreme heat that I think we're going to have more and more," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-06/acoss-calls-for-energy-pr…
# Australia, Utilities electricity water gas, Families.New data shows that homelessness is a women’s rights issue
Hannah Brais, Alex Nelson, Jesse Jenkinson and Kaitlin J. Schwan The Conversation (No paywall)Visible homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the housing crisis across Canada. For women, girls and gender-diverse people, homelessness is often hidden, meaning that they are more likely to avoid shelters, couch surf or remain in abusive relationships than end up on the streets. Because of this, we know less about their experiences.
https://theconversation.com/new-data-shows-that-homelessness-is-…
# International, Homelessness, Women.Forget your post-Covid property hopes: crazy house prices are the only sure thing
Greg Jericho The Guardian (No paywall)The latest lending finance figures suggests there has been a recent slowing of home loans, but it remains far from a “cooling off”. Meanwhile, as the restrictions on travel look likely to be eased, the question remains how quickly our holiday spending will return to old levels – or will we keep buying furniture for a while to come?
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2021/oct/05/for…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.NT pleads with Canberra to pay for new homes on Aboriginal homelands, plays catch-up on remote housing targets
Kate Ashton ABC (No paywall)The Northern Territory has asked the Australian government to urgently fund new homes and upgrades on traditional Aboriginal homelands, where people are living in "dilapidated houses for shelter, in severely overcrowded conditions".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-04/nt-asks-federal-governmen…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Families, Federal Government, Housing market, State Government.How share housing as a single parent helped improve Indi's quality of life
Matilda Marozzi ABC (No paywall)When Indi Williams, 27, was given notice to vacate her rental in Melbourne's outer suburbs, the prospect of finding an appropriate and affordable home for herself and her two-year-old daughter Alice was daunting.
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/share-housing-as-single-parent-h…
# Australia, Eviction, Affordable housing, Personal stories, Women.