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
Building more affordable and social housing keeps the state safe and saves the public purse: experts
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Governments have been urged to ramp up the construction of thousands of social and affordable homes in NSW to keep the state safe and save the public purse as the pandemic rips through communities that are at most risk of homelessness, experts have warned. ... Health and housing experts said the latest outbreak highlighted the importance of secure and affordable homes to secure better health outcomes for individual families and the broader community. “What the pandemic has made clear is the community impact. The disadvantage has a broader community impact,” said Kate Colvin, spokeswoman for the Everybody’s Home campaign, which aims to end homelessness and support vulnerable households, first-home buyers and renters.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/building-more-affordable-social-h…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Health, Homelessness, State Government.Why COVID strengthens the case for abolishing stamp duty
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)COVID’s sudden and radical reshaping of the landscape of our private and working lives — which is likely to persist, given rising acceptance of working from home by employers — has provided a unique opportunity for Australians to rethink their ideal home. Many have already voted with their feet, ditching inner city pads for more expansive countryside abodes. But there remains a huge barrier to this desirable societal shift of Australians being liberated to live where it best suits them: stamp duty.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/why-covid-strengthen…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, State Government, Tax.Byron Bay: ‘When did the rot set in?’
David Leser The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It attracted rebels and misfits and dreamers; people who wanted to live outside of the dominant paradigm. And now? It is an area beset by chronic housing insecurity ... with people sleeping in their cars or camping on the sides of mountains. ... “This is a problem being faced by communities all over the country,” says [David] Leser, “where people are being priced out, where there’s not enough long-term housing, where people are opting to rent out their rooms for Airbnb, and where the army of homeless – particularly among women, single mothers and older women – is growing at an alarming rate.” Read David Leser's full article entitled 'Loved to Death' in Good Weekend (17 July 2021) at: [https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/byron-blues-how-mega-money-and-global-exposure-are-changing-an-australian-paradise-20210623-p583pa.html]
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/byron-ba…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Homelessness, Older people, Regional NSW, Women.From Sydney to Shanghai: China’s luxury retirement homes draw millions from investors
Bloomberg News The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)From China ... Retiree William Tang recently decided to swap his life in downtown Shanghai for a luxury elder-care development in the city’s far west, paying $US220,000 ($300,000) to rent a two-bedroom apartment for 15 years. “It is more like a resort,” Tang said after viewing the Ardor Gardens showroom, which highlights amenities including an indoor swimming pool, yoga rooms, wine tastings and round-the-clock care. For a growing number of Chinese and international investors, elder-care developments like Ardor Gardens are becoming irresistible bets. Money is pouring into the sector amid renewed attention on just how quickly China is ageing.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/from-sydney-…
# International, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Older people.Urban planner and policy leader ‘made a difference’
Robert Freestone and Richard Whitington The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)JOHN MANT, 1936-2021: John Mant who died on July 10, aged 84 left a legacy still in the making, especially in the field of urban planning. With a passion for public policy and social justice, he claimed many distinctions as lawyer, planner, public servant, and politician. He was Gough Whitlam’s Principal Private Secretary on dismissal day, November 11, 1975. ... His vision for the places where we live, work and relax, and how we move between them, was informed by the need to put common sense, consultation and competence above the frequently prevailing forces of short-termism, sloth and surreptitiousness.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/urban-planner-and-policy-leader-…
# History NSW, Planning and development.California Turned Pandemic Rentals Into Permanent Housing For Homeless People
Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari (No paywall)Nationally, Native Americans have the second-highest rate of homelessness among all racial groups, behind Pacific Islanders. That often translates into overcrowding, where two or three families live under one roof. Joshua Ray ... is a social worker with ... the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians. They're headquartered in the rural town of Lakeport about a two-hour drive north of San Francisco. Ray says homelessness and poverty are huge problems for their tribe. That's why they applied for a $1.2 million grant from the state to purchase and renovate a 10-unit apartment complex in Lakeport, Calif. It's part of a new program called Homekey, a statewide effort to quickly convert existing properties into temporary or permanent long-term housing. Since launching in June 2020, Homekey has created nearly 6,000 new units statewide for people experiencing homelessness. They did it by cutting through a lot of red tape and using existing buildings, mostly hotels and motels, but also vacation rentals, a college dormitory, single-family houses, office buildings and apartment buildings. (npr.org)
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/16/1016482694/california-pandemic-re…
# International, Homelessness, Race and ethnicity.Scrapping stamp duty would help home buyers and state economies, report finds
Jennifer Duke and Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Scrapping stamp duty in favour of annual land taxes would encourage upsizers and downsizers to move house, benefitting both home buyers and state economies, new research from the federal government’s affordable housing arm [National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation] has found. ... The NSW government is planning to phase out the one-off large stamp duty in favour of a smaller but annual land tax. The proposal in its current form does not affect existing property owners, to avoid double taxation, and gives households the option of paying an upfront stamp duty or an ongoing annual land tax when they buy. The ACT government is in the process of switching away from a transfer duty.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/scrapping-stamp-duty-wou…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, State Government, Tax.Sydney lockdown: The real effect of unaffordable and insecure housing in a pandemic
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)A person’s living situation is one of the biggest factors in controlling the virus, and the pandemic highlights the haves and have-nots in Sydney once again, leaving south-west Sydneysiders at higher risk. The NSW government at the weekend locked down three entire local government areas – Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury-Bankstown — in a serious escalation of the health order in a bid to stop the virus from spreading in two main settings: the workplace and the home. Doing so laid bare the housing inequalities residents face in these communities where the virus has taken hold and is spreading through entire families. That’s because households in south-west Sydney look a little bit different: multigenerational homes have been on the rise for many decades and have almost become the norm. Sometimes by cultural choice, sometimes by economic necessity. But the rates of overcrowding – a form of homelessness – are much higher too. This is a living situation when three additional rooms are needed to house a family comfortably, according to international standards.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-lockdown-the-real-effect-o…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Housing market.