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
Is the UK housing bubble about to burst? These are the best and worst scenarios
Josh Ryan-Collins The Guardian (No paywall)UK house prices appear to have defied economic gravity over the past year. The lockdowns triggered by the pandemic led to a 10% fall in GDP, the largest fall in 300 years, since the Great Frost of 1709. Yet the latest data shows house prices have grown at the fastest annual rate – 13.4% – in 17 years. Are we in the midst of another housing bubble?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/02/housing-bu…
# International, Housing market.‘Wall of high-rise buildings’: Plans for 45-storey towers at Blackwattle Bay
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Berejiklian government’s plans to build 1500 apartments in towers up to 45 storeys at Blackwattle Bay would create a wall of high-rise buildings close to the foreshore, according to residents and the City of Sydney council.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/wall-of-high-rise-buildings-…
# NSW, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.Couple to be forced out Moama holiday park under NSW legislation
Anna McGuinness (Paywall)An elderly couple will soon be left homeless, with red tape due to force Bruce and Maureen Costall out of the Moama holiday park they have called home for six months. For 15 years, the dual Australian and Canadian citizens have split their time between the countries, spending Australian summers in their unit at Murray River Holiday Park. In March last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Air Canada cancelled their flight back to Canada, which had been booked for May. Under the NSW Holiday Parks Act, the couple is only permitted to spend 180 days at the park in a 12-month period. (Riverine Herald)
https://www.riverineherald.com.au/news/2021/06/24/4509806/couple…
# NSW, Eviction, Land lease communities, Coronavirus COVID-19, Regional NSW, Short-term holiday letting.Rough sleeping increased by 3% in London during pandemic despite emergency measures
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)Latest annual data from the Greater London Authority (GLA) showed that 11,018 individuals were seen sleeping rough by outreach workers in 2020/21 – up 3% from 10,726 people spotted in 2019/20. Of the people seen sleeping rough in 2020/21, 7,531 (68%) were sleeping rough for the first time, marking a 7% increase on the number of new rough sleepers in 2019/20. Overall there has been a 94% increase in the number of rough sleepers in the capital since 2011/12 when 5,678 rough sleepers were recorded.
Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, said: “There is nothing inevitable about this. Last year we saw brilliant but short-lived measures that dramatically reduced the numbers of people sleeping rough. "But the commitments made at the start of the pandemic have fallen away and this progress is now in imminent danger of being lost.”
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/rough-sleeping-increased-by…
# International, Homelessness.(Another) real reason we’ve got constant undersupply of apartments and to shake off the toxic cycle
Andrea Sharam The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Developers and financiers are driven by a logical desire to avoid a sudden fall in demand. So they undersupply the market demand. But there’s another more ordered and safe way to better meet our housing needs. How about a developer’s fee for service?
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/another-r…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.Are low interest rates increasing inequality? No, says the world’s central bank
John Hawkins The Conversation (No paywall)[BIS, the global expert on monetary policy] agrees the gap between the rich and the poor within countries has indeed widened since about the 1980s, and the COVID recession has made things worse. But it concludes low interest rates are not the real culprit. The BIS report instead emphasises the impact of technological progress and globalisation. Technological progress, particularly in information technology, has increased the productivity and incomes of the wealthy (such as top lawyers and tech company executives). It has done little for many low income earners (such as aged care workers and restaurant staff). ... A central bank can only do so much to mitigate these factors. ... Central banks may be able to help reduce inequality through some of their other roles, however.
https://theconversation.com/are-low-interest-rates-increasing-in…
# Australia, Housing market.Rescue work halted at Miami apartment site over fears of further collapse
Terry Spencer The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)From Miami ... Rescue efforts at the site of a partially collapsed Florida apartment building have been halted out of concern about the stability of the remaining structure after crews noticed widening cracks and up to 30 centimetres of movement in a large column, officials said. ... The cause of the collapse is under investigation. A 2018 engineering report found that the building’s ground-floor pool deck was resting on a concrete slab that had “major structural damage” and needed extensive repairs. The report also found “abundant cracking” of concrete columns, beams and walls in the parking garage. Just two months before the building came down, the president of its board wrote a letter to residents saying that structural problems identified in the 2018 inspection had “gotten significantly worse” and that major repairs would cost at least $US15.5 million ($20.75 million). With bids for the work still pending, the building suddenly collapsed last Thursday.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/rescue-work-halted-at…
# International, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.‘Urgency among buyers’: Melbourne, Canberra on track to join Sydney’s $1m property club
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Melbourne and Canberra are on track to join Sydney as the nation’s $1 million cities after further large increases in property values despite coronavirus lockdowns.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/house-prices-surge-to-fr…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market.