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
Albany youth service Young House teaches young people how to cook, clean and save for a home
Evelyn Manfield ABC (No paywall)At just 22, [Nick Chalkley-Bisset] is ready to buy a place with his brother, and the pair have just received the good news that they have been pre-approved for a home loan. It is not just impressive because of his age, but because in recent years he has been homeless numerous times. ... Mr Chalkley-Bisset has stayed on and off at a refuge in Albany since he was a teenager. ... [Albany Youth Support Association] helps connect young people to youth workers and future accommodation, and gives them some of the life skills they might not have been taught at school, such as financial management, cooking and cleaning.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-13/albany-youth-service-chan…
# Australia, Home ownership, Homelessness, Young people.Where to get legitimate help to make ends meet during lockdown
Nicole Pedersn-McKinnon The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)COVID-19 has necessitated many months of lockdowns at home in New South Wales and Victoria over the past year and a half. And if you can’t do your job from home, or go in as an essential worker, financial stress is likely to have well and truly kicked in by now. ... Repayment holidays are most common with mortgage issuers, possibly your biggest source of financial pressure. However, utility providers are also now stepping up to assist struggling families. Reprieves are also being granted by insurers – in particular, health. ... This seems too good to be true, but household relief loans without interest are being offered by charity Good Shepherd Microfinance. [Read more]
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/where-to-get…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families.Buying a home can feel impossible. Here are alternative ways to get into the housing market
Rhiana Whitson ABC (No paywall)Nic Holas and his partner Chris Cheers are moving into a "rent-with-the-option-to-buy" housing development, by Assemble Communities, in Melbourne's inner-city suburbs. ... Under this particular model, residents agree to pay rent over a five-year period at a set market rate and lock in a purchase price before the development is built. After seven years (a two-year build, plus five years renting) they can buy the apartment at the agreed price or end the contract and move out. However, the money they've paid in rent does not go towards the purchase price. [Read about other options ...]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-12/housing-market-property-b…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Tax on landlords could help pay for social care, says Keir Starmer
BBC (No paywall)Money to pay for social care could have been raised through taxing landlords, Sir Keir Starmer was expected to tell a conference. It comes after Boris Johnson announced plans to raise National Insurance tax on workers and employers in order to pay for the NHS backlog and social care. Sir Keir was to describe the rise as "unfair" and "poorly thought through". But the Labour leader has come under pressure in recent days to detail his own plan to fund social care.
# International, Landlords and agents, Welfare.‘Pretty stretched’: Westpac boss says housing affordability is getting worse
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Westpac chief executive Peter King has underlined a deterioration in housing affordability, saying regulators should wait for lockdowns to end before assessing whether there was a need for lending curbs to be introduced.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/pretty-stret…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Home loan crackdown should be a question of when, not if
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Amid all the grim economic news, there is one part of the economy that has seemed almost bulletproof: housing. It may be good news for homeowners that Sydney house prices are up a massive 20.9 per cent in the last year, while Melbourne prices are up 13.1 per cent, even if monthly growth is slowing. But for the economy it’s not so simple. ... Figures from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) show that in the last few quarters, new lending to highly-indebted borrowers has been on the rise. APRA said the share of new loans where the customer was borrowing more than six times their income jumped from 19.1 per cent to 21.9 per cent in the June quarter, the highest level since it started collecting this data in 2019. A year ago, the share of new lending in this category was only 16 per cent.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/home-loan-cu…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.A new planning reform could mean the death of England’s high streets
Simon Jenkins The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... he summer of 2021 may be remembered for Covid and the withdrawal from Afghanistan. But another lasting and insidious change took place: the death of the high street. By approving the building of residential homes on ailing shopping streets, planning minister Robert Jenrick effectively allowed any shop, restaurant, cafe or business premise in England to become a house. Since almost everywhere houses make more money, this puts every high street under threat.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/10/planning-r…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.LMI is 'dead money', so some home buyers are finding ways to avoid paying mortgage insurance
Emilia Terzon ABC (No paywall)With soaring property prices pushing more Australians into lenders mortgage insurance, some first home buyers are finding ways to avoid paying for the costly financial product. Exclusive data given to ABC News shows there has been a rise in lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) policies being taken out as the housing market booms. LMI is a lump sum payment of insurance that lenders often expect borrowers without a 20 per cent deposit to pay on top of their loan. It can cost borrowers tens of thousands of dollars, which is often added to their mortgage, meaning the overall cost blows out even further with interest.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-10/lenders-mortgage-insuranc…
# Australia, Home ownership, Tax.