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
Where there’s smoke, there’s call for crackdown on cigarettes in units
Felicity Caldwell The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Apartment dwellers who annoy their neighbours with cigarette smoke could face stricter rules under proposed changes to the law being considered by the Queensland government.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/queensland/where-there-s-smoke-t…
# Australia, Strata, Health, State Government.'More need for compassion' from some landlords - Housing Minister
Nita Blake-Persen (No paywall)From New Zealand ... Housing Minister Megan Woods is encouraging some landlords to show more compassion to ease the country's housing crisis.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/20187…
# Audio International, Public and community housing, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Canana's Housing Market Is Out of Control
Dan Darrah (No paywall)House prices and rents in Canada are skyrocketing. There’s only one solution to the social crisis this has caused: a massive expansion of public housing, releasing people from dependence on a rigged market.
https://jacobinmag.com/2021/06/canada-housing-rising-rent-real-e…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Australian house price growth to slow by the end of 2021: economists
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)The rapid pace of Australian house price growth is set to slow by the end of the year, economists predict, as affordability pressures bite and more homes are offered for sale.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/australian-house-price-growth-to-…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.Banks beware: Fast, cheap loans set to disrupt $1.9 trillion mortgage market
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Is digital disruption a threat to the banks’ mortgage engine rooms, which are a pillar of bank profitability? Some think so, such as Evans and Partners analyst Matthew Wilson. He says Macquarie’s rapid growth in home loans is clear evidence that disruption is already occurring in the market. But over the longer term, he says a bigger change is likely, as a new breed of fintechs that offer low-cost digital loans compete for a slice of the profit pool.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/banks-beware…
# Australia, Housing market.Housing debt ‘explosion’ looms over the horizon: Judo Bank
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Judo Bank chief executive Joseph Healy has sounded a warning over the ongoing build-up in housing debt, saying it would be foolhardy to assume interest rates will stay at record lows for an extended period of time. Mr Healy, who previously ran National Australia Bank’s flagship business bank, on Monday said one of his key concerns over the medium to long-term was the “almost uncontrollable rise in household debt”.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/housing-debt…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market.How profit-hungry developers broke the housing system
Iasabel Ringrose (No paywall)House hunters can buy a two-bedroom flat for as much as £1,990,000 at Embassy Gardens, Nine Elms. And many are bought as investments, rather than to live in.... Housing exposes obscene wealth and hard poverty in Britain today. Behind it all is a system where houses are built for profit, not homes. (Socialist Worker)
https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/51909/How+profit+hungry+develo…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.The Sydney and Melbourne suburbs where every house sells for $1 million plus
Jennifer Duke and Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)There are 156 suburbs in Sydney and 15 in Melbourne where every house sold this year has changed hands for more than $1 million as first-home buyers start to retreat from the hot property markets.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/the-sydney-and-melbourne…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.