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
Banking regulators poised to tighten lending standards to cool market
Shane Wright and Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Reserve Bank and the nation’s prudential regulator are poised to tighten lending standards in the face of soaring property prices and growing household debt as Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says higher house prices are good for the economy. The Commonwealth Bank, the nation’s biggest lender, revealed it would increase the interest rate it uses to assesses new loan applications, while the RBA and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority are considering ways to temper some of the heat across the national market in coming weeks.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/banking-regulators-poise…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.Newcastle's public housing on the decline
Sage Swinton (Paywall)There were 150 less properties in Newcastle owned by the state government’s housing arm last year than a decade before as applicants face a wait of up to 10 years for social housing. ... Newcastle MP Tim Crakanthorp said the decrease was “disappointing, but it’s not surprising”. “This government is flogging off these properties in Newcastle and raking in the cash, but completely failing to build appropriate properties to keep up with demand,” he said. (Newcastle Herald)
https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/7303133/newcastles-publ…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Regional NSW, State Government.Melbourne apartment defect horror leaves owner with health issues
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)When Zoe Foster visited her doctor for a routine COVID-19 test, the doctor regarded her swab with horror. “Your nose is black inside!” she exclaimed. “It looks like … mould spores.”
https://www.domain.com.au/news/melbourne-apartment-defect-horror…
# Australia, Strata, Health, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Mould.Open letter, EU Member States must act to stop evictions and prevent homelessness
(No paywall)To all member states participating in the High-level Meeting on Homelessness of 21 June ... The undersigned organisations (including IUT) request EU Member States to act immediately and effectively to avoid a high peak of evictions in Europe. An ambitious policy to prevent rental evictions is now more necessary than ever. Preventing homelessness arising from evictions must be part of the commitment to end homelessness by 2030. [Click final Statement] (International Union of Tenants News0
https://www.iut.nu/news-events/open-letter-eu-member-states-must…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Homelessness.Should Australia increase interest rates to stop house prices rising so quickly?
Chris Edmonds The Guardian (No paywall)But what about house prices? They’re rising quickly. And isn’t that because of all this stimulus? Maybe interest rates should rise, to stop house prices rising so quickly and to make housing more affordable? ... In my view, that would be a bad idea. While both demand and supply matter, the key problems with housing affordability are on the supply-side – more precisely, because housing supply does not increase sufficiently “elastically” when house prices increase. If supply was more elastic, for example if it was easier to increase density near desirable locations, then surges in housing demand driven by monetary policy would lead to more muted price increases and larger increases in the housing stock. Trying to address complex location-specific supply-side problems with one-size-fits-all monetary policy tools is hopeless, and probably dangerous.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/18/its-great-…
# Australia, Housing market.Pay the rent, and the rest: tenants hit back at the rise in third-party processing
Michael McGowan The Guardian (No paywall)What it didn’t say was that by signing up to use RentPay, Max would be forced to pay a $3 set-up fee, plus a monthly fee of $2 as well as 1.25% for each transaction for any payments via Visa or Mastercard. Using BPay would attract a transaction fee of 88c. “I know it’s not a huge amount of money, but it is a shitty thing for them to do. We pay more than $600 a week, why should we then have to pay fees to pay our own rent?” Max says.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/19/pay-the-r…
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents.From relationships to home ownership, young women are imagining a different future
Scott Mitchell and Alex Tighe ABC (No paywall)The future [Jacinta Gregory] imagines for herself is very different ... That includes her living arrangements, which like many young women she does not see involving home ownership anytime soon. Seventy-four per cent of people aged of 18-24 think owning a home isn't really an option anymore for most young Australians. But that number jumps up for young women, 82 per cent of whom don't think home ownership is an option. But while being locked out of the housing market can be frustrating, Ms Gregory has made peace with it.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-19/women-are-changing-their-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Women.Homeless crisis looming beneath the surface in holiday town on NSW South Coast
Jessica Clifford and Melinda James ABC (No paywall)On the surface, Ulladulla on the NSW South Coast is a popular, bustling holiday destination but locals say there is a hidden housing crisis, and it is only getting worse. Rental properties are non-existent, with fewer than 20 listings currently available and nothing under $400 per week.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-17/a-homelessness-crisis-hid…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, Regional NSW.