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
Small-home dream can become a nightmare of red tape due to planning codes and laws
Sean Wales ABC (No paywall)Jiri Lev and his family are preparing to move into their new home. But they haven't gone down the mainstream path. "We built a small house to try and remain debt free — it's extremely small," Mr Lev said. To be exact, it's 7.2 by 3.6 metres. ... But they've been surprised by the amount of red tape and regulation that comes with building a small home.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-09/building-small-homes-can-…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing market, Local Government.'My flat is now a commodity’: Berlin to vote on seizing rental properties
(Paywall)Bid to confiscate apartments from publicly listed landlords could set precedent for other cities with high rents. (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/ad96da11-d012-440a-b1d9-05718aac47a5
# International, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Local Government.Multibillion-dollar land sales target imposed on NSW departments
Tom Rabe The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The NSW government has imposed a $3 billion land and property sales target on its departments, including education, to buffer the state’s budget and bankroll future infrastructure projects.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/multibillion-dollar-land-sal…
# NSW, Planning and development, State Government.Opal Tower builder denies involvement in separate Sydney apartment complex found with defects
Josh Bavas ABC (No paywall)The builder of Sydney's infamous Opal Tower has been hit with an order by the NSW Building Commissioner to fix a number of defects in a separate residential complex. Icon Co (NSW) Pty Ltd was issued with the order last Thursday over a number of defects in the Roseberry complex but has denied any link to the project, telling the ABC it will dispute the claim. The list of defects included waterproofing issues on the roof and in the basement, corroding balustrades which pose a "threat of collapse", as well as fire safety issues.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-11/opal-tower-builder-denies…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.The new real estate normal
Eli Saslow (No paywall)From the United States ...In the record-setting housing market of 2021, homeownership has become the dividing line for a fractured economy that’s racing toward extremes. Real estate values have surged by almost 25 percent since the beginning of the pandemic, creating more than $1 trillion in new wealth for existing homeowners. Many of them have used that money to buy investment properties and second homes, further driving up prices while first-time buyers increasingly struggle to afford anything at all. Homeowners on average are now reported to have as much as 80 times greater net worth than renters, who continue to suffer disproportionately from some of the pandemic’s worst effects: high rates of unemployment, eviction and a historic increase in the cost of living. (The Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/07/18/idaho-housing-m…
# International, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.‘Massive toll’: Sydney apartment buyers languishing years after paying deposits
Matt Sullivan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More than four years after paying a deposit, Sydney woman Kim Morris has no idea when she can move into an apartment she bought off the plan. “The worst thing is the deafening silence from the developer. It is just the total uncertainty – we just can’t get a word out of them,” she said.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/massive-toll-sydney-apartmen…
# NSW, Strata, Housing market.Sydney boarding houses in Randwick and Newtown hit the market
Allison Worrall (No paywall)The auction of two established boarding houses in Sydney will test the market’s demand for an asset class that has delivered promising results since the onset of the pandemic. (commercialrealestate.com.au)
https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/news/boarding-houses-107…
# NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Demolish and subdivide: the Perth suburbs in property developers’ sights
Tracy Vo and Lauren Pilat The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Property developers are knocking Perth homes down and subdividing blocks at an increasing rate with some local governments approving up to 44 per cent more demolitions in the last year, which experts put down to low housing stock and COVID-recovery grants.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/demolish-and-s…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Local Government.