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
Increased housing supply is dependent on profitability of developments: AHURI
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Investment in major infrastructure projects, streamlining development approvals and reducing the cost of developments are some of the ways governments can improve housing supply around Australia, a housing expert says. ... [Australia Housing and Urban Research Institute director Steven Rowley] said while there was plenty of residential construction around Australia, it was unevenly spread. Not enough was built in areas of demand, causing upward pressure on prices during lockdown.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/increased-housing-supply-is-depen…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.Miami's best real estate is under threat from rising sea levels, so the wealthy are moving to higher ground
Emily Olson ABC (No paywall)When an apartment building collapsed just 25 minutes from his home, Ivory Artis was grappling with the potential loss of his own apartment in Miami. As sea levels rise, prime beach real estate has been losing its cachet. Developers have started looking inland, in marginalised communities like Ivory's, to build luxury homes for the coastal elite. This February, a California-based capital firm bought the three-storey building where Ivory has kept a one-bedroom apartment for over 16 years. In May, the new manager notified the tenants they had 60 days to vacate the property.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-14/miami-building-collapse-c…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Climate change, Housing market, Race and ethnicity.How planning is failing to address race inequality in housing
Jess McCabe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United KIngdom ... Black people are more than three times as likely as white people in England to experience homelessness. Shelter research earlier this year concluded that one million Black adults (57%) in Britain and 1.8 million Asian adults (48%) do not have a safe or secure home, compared with 33% of white adults. .... One answer that has not had enough attention ... lies in the planning departments of local authorities. A new report by Amy Bristow ... sets out how planning has, in fact, been contributing to the problem instead.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/how-planning-is-…
# International, Public and community housing, Local Government, Planning and development.New options for village retirement living
Rachel Lane The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Retirement and aged care community provider Aveo has introduced a new payment structure for moving into a retirement village. New residents moving into one of their independent living villages will now have three ways to pay for their new home – called Now, Later and Bond.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/new-options-fo…
# Australia, Housing market, Older people.Migrants trying to get into Hobart's housing market face extra tax hurdle that pushes many homes out of reach
Sarah Jane Bell ABC (No paywall)Buying a house in Hobart is hard. For Habib ur Rehman, it's even worse. The new migrant has a more than $40,000 tax handicap preventing him from buying a home in the state because of a surcharge the state government introduced for foreigners. "I have considered Australia like my home but … I felt like I am not a first-class citizen here," Mr Rehman said. An engineer by trade, Mr Rehman received a state-sponsored skilled migrant visa almost two and a half years ago.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-15/hobart-housing-market-mig…
# Australia, Home ownership, State Government, Tax.Calls for crackdown on dodgy builders in Tasmania, with homeowners speaking out about traumatic experiences
Annah Fromberg ABC (No paywall)Adriane and Gillian Creamer began a $400,000 renovation and extension of their Cygnet home, south of Hobart, in November 2019. Nearly two years on it's still not finished and they've spent an extra $150,000 fixing defects and $50,000 on legal fees. The couple, who are approaching retirement, describe it as the most traumatic experience of their life. ... When he questioned the builder about the issues, the couple said the relationship became so strained, they sought legal advice and an assessment from a second building surveyor. ... The relevant regulator in Tasmania, the Consumer, Building and Occupation Services (CBOS), insists there are sufficient consumer protections to force builders to fix defects, without resorting to legal action.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-16/calls-for-crackdown-on-do…
# Australia, Housing market, State Government.The high risks faced by international student renters in Australia.
Paul van Reyk Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)International students in Australia make a huge contribution to the economy and the community. They also face serious struggles and hardships. Finding and keeping rental accommodation is one of the major hidden risks they face. COVID-19 has made it even riskier. Professor Alan Morris and colleagues have recently published a significant piece of research here. In this interview, Paul van Reyk, Senior Project Officer with the Tenant’s Union, talks with Alan about the findings and implications of the research.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/high-risks-faced-international-s…
# Australia, Rent, International, Students.Why $46 Billion Couldn’t Prevent an Eviction Crisis
Glenn Thrush and Conor Dougherty The New York Times (Paywall)As national eviction protections lapse, much of the rental assistance sits unspent. Aid was slowed by red tape, resistance from landlords and the difficulty of navigating an informal market. Does a lease on a napkin qualify? ... The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the national moratorium on evictions last month has turned a vexing administrative problem into a human crisis, placing at least 2 million renters in immediate danger of eviction, according to one estimate. ... Federal and local officials, housing experts, landlords and tenants cited an array of problems that slowed the flow of aid: bureaucratic missteps at all levels of government, onerous applications, resistance from landlords, the reluctance of local officials to ease eligibility requirements for the poor, difficulty raising awareness that rental aid even existed, and a steep rise in rents that increased the incentive for kicking out low-income tenants. More than anything, the failure illustrates the difficulty of trying to build a vast new social program from scratch in under a year, and the inability of policymakers to fully anticipate the challenges of navigating a rental market dominated by mom-and-pop operators outside the more regulated world of owner-occupied housing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/business/evictions-rental-ass…
# Must read International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, State Government.