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
Evergrande collapse exposes lost world a lightning-fast economy left behind
Eryk Bagshaw The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When the villagers left the Shengsi Islands in the early 1990s, China’s property market was at the start of a boom that would last until this year. The old villages were giving way to the towering blocks of concrete that would become synonymous with the country’s rapid economic rise. ... The migration away from Shengsi left the abandoned town of Houtouwan in its wake. It once had a population of 3000 but now ivy grows up through the streets and into the rooms of the houses that remain. ... Millions of families piled their life savings into apartment towers stacked 12 blocks wide and 20 storeys high as the country opened up and investment flowed in during the 1990s and 2000s. ... The runaway growth was not sustainable. The bubble burst when the Chinese government stepped in last year, tightening regulations on lending. Now, dozens more abandoned towns lie on the Chinese mainland. Few are as scenic as Houtouwan.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/evergrande-collapse-exposes-lo…
# International, Housing market.Berlin buys thousands of apartments from corporate landlords
(No paywall)Berlin’s city government said Friday it is buying some 14,750 apartments from two large corporate landlords for 2.46 billion euros ($2.9 billion) — a deal announced a week before local and national elections as the German capital tries to expand the supply of publicly owned accommodation. ... Rising rents have been a hot-button issue for years in Berlin, where tenants long enjoyed low rents compared with many other capital cities. Purchases of apartments that were once government-owned but over recent decades were sold off to private companies are one way in which the outgoing city government — a left-wing coalition of the Social Democrats, Greens and Left Party — has sought to address the problem. So far, it hasn’t had much success. In April, Germany’s highest court ruled that a cap the local government imposed on rent prices last year was unconstitutional and void.
https://apnews.com/article/europe-business-elections-berlin-nati…
# International, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Rent arrears rise by £88m during pandemic waves, lettings agency claims
Matthew Lane (No paywall)From he United Kingdom ... An estate and lettings agent has analysed how the level of rental arrears has grown between each wave of the pandemic.
https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2021/9/rent-ar…
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Gold Coast property market booming despite closed borders — so what happens when overseas buyers return?
Dominic Cansdale ABC (No paywall)Queensland's border is once again shut but the Gold Coast property market continues to surge, driven in large part by interstate buyers unable to visit the properties they are purchasing. ... But given the Gold Coast property market has been strong despite border closures, the eventual return of overseas buyers, while still uncertain, could drive up demand even further.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-23/gold-coast-property-marke…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Are new borrowing rules on the horizon? / "Factually inaccurate" mortgage applications
Emma Koehn and Colin Kruger The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Report at 1.42pm .... Jarden chief economist Carlos Cacho believes Australia could see macroprudential tightening next year in the face of our hot housing market - but new limits on home borrowers may not hit until mid to late next year, after the federal election.
Another report at 1.42pm ... As mortgage deferrals rocket in the wake of the latest lockdowns in NSW and Victoria it might be time to look at the quality of the loans the big banks have been signing up in what has been boom conditions for them. The latest UBS evidence lab on Australian mortgages reports that “factually inaccurate” mortgage applications have hit a record high.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/asx-to-rise-on-clear-out…
# Australia, Housing market.CBA boss ‘increasingly concerned’ with rising property prices
Charlotte Grieve The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s chief executive Matt Comyn says he is increasingly concerned with rising house prices and household debt levels and has called for action to be taken sooner rather than later to stop the property market from overheating.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/cba-boss-inc…
# Australia, Housing market.Tenant News
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Check out the latest stories from Tenant News ... Lots about renting during Covid-19; new laws for pets in strata; discrimination; housing crisis; Make Renting Fair campaign; land lease communities; Tenants' Union staff
https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=29c79d2825cb376b3f0b06385&id…
# Must read NSW, Discrimination, Land lease communities, Rent, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Coronavirus COVID-19, Pets.Australia's housing laws are changing, but do they go far enough to prevent pet abandonment?
Emma Power and Wendy Stone The Conversation (No paywall)New South Wales recently became the latest state to end blanket bans on pets in apartments, joining Queensland and the ACT. ... But while some laws are changing, there is still too much uncertainty across the housing system. As a result, pets are often the victims when people need to relocate and can’t take their dogs or cats with them. With close to 2.5 million Australians now living in apartments and a third of Australian households renting their homes — and rising — there is an urgent need for consistent, equitable and pet-supportive housing policies across the country. ... One group is left out of the newly introduced NSW rules. Renters will still require landlord permission to keep pets in strata title apartments — and that can be hard to come by.
https://theconversation.com/australias-housing-laws-are-changing…
# Australia, Rent, Strata, Housing market, Pets.