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
‘I’m now broke’: Without his usual four shifts, lockdown means Ed can’t pay his rent
Rachel Eddie The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Casual worker Ed Westlake doesn’t know how he will pay his rent this month after his usual four shifts a week working in events were cancelled due to Victoria’s seven-day lockdown. He is one of thousands of people paying for lockdown in lost wages without any support after the Morrison government shrugged off a push to revive its JobKeeper wages subsidy.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/i-m-now-broke-without-h…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Australia’s five biggest cities on course for double-digit house price growth
Euan Black The New Daily (No paywall)Sydney home owners will see their wealth increase by more than double the nation’s average wage this year if economists’ house price predictions come true. Economists are tipping property values to rise by at least 6 per cent in Australia’s five largest cities over the next seven months and by 8 per cent in Sydney and Perth.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/05/31/house-pri…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Concerns tight Gold Coast rental market means tenants won't assert their rights
Dominic Cansdale ABC (No paywall)There are concerns that low vacancy rates in the Gold Coast rental market are discouraging tenants from asserting their rights with real estate agents and landlords. ... Burleigh Waters resident Aline Christ said her real estate agent proposed a 15 per cent increase to her rent, due to the competitive market. ... "[The owner] had no idea the real estate was proposing to raise my rent that much," she said. ... enants Queensland chief executive Penny Carr said that, with such low vacancy rates, many renters were desperate. "People are taking things sight unseen, tenants are up-bidding the rent and offering long periods of time upfront to pay the rent," she said. "The past few months have created a lot of problems for renters."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-01/gold-coast-rental-market-…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Thousands to receive extra housing support as eviction ban ends
Katy Scott (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Thousands of vulnerable young people could receive extra help to pay their rent under fast-tracked changes to housing benefits announced by the government, as charities warn of a “tsunami” of renters being thrown out of their homes with the end of the eviction ban. (The Big Issue)
https://www.bigissue.com/latest/thousands-to-receive-extra-housi…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Young people.Tomorrow? The future being sold at our weekend auctions
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It’s a sign of how unhinged the national property market has become that a friend who bought a house last Friday was told his new home had risen $20,000 in value by Tuesday.
He hasn’t even got the keys to the place but so separated from reality has the national parlour game that is bricks and mortar become that it is showing increasing similarities to a Ponzi scheme.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tomorrow-the-future-bein…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Supply failing to keep up with demand in red-hot property market
Euan Black The New Daily (No paywall)Buyers are snapping up properties faster than vendors can list them for sale in a housing market that barely noticed the recession and has now recorded eight consecutive months of price rises. Demand for housing is so strong that even a jump in the number of new listings to 15 per cent above the five-year average was not enough to cool the market in May. National property values increased 2.2 per cent over the month and are now 10.6 per cent higher than the same time last year – with new data from CoreLogic showing that for every new property added to the market, more than one property is exchanging hands.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/06/01/housing-m…
# Australia, Housing market.Property prices jump 2.2 per cent as housing boom rolls on
Euan Black The New Daily (No paywall)Australia’s housing boom continued apace in May as buyers buoyed by the economic recovery rushed to take advantage of record-low interest rates. National property values surged 2.2 per cent over the month and ended it 10.6 per cent higher than the same time last year. The sharp rise was stronger than expected as analysts had thought a rise in the number of properties listed for sale combined with growing affordability concerns would curb the pace of growth.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/06/01/house-pri…
# Australia, Housing market.RBA keeps interest rates at record low of 0.1% as housing prices hit record highs
Naaman Zhou The Guardian (No paywall)The reserve bank has continued to hold interest rates at a record low of 0.1% as house prices across Australia keep rising. The national housing market rose 2.2% in May, according to the latest data from CoreLogic, following on from a 1.8% rise in April and a 32-year record rise in March of 2.8%.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/01/rba-keeps…
# Australia, Housing market.