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
Stamp duty for land value tax
Cameron K Murray (No paywall)The NSW government is proposing to give homebuyers the option to not pay stamp duty on their housing purchase and instead opt to pay an ongoing land value tax. I have labelled such policies SD4LVT. SD4LVT seems to be motivated by "bad economics". All the efficiency gains that economic analysts claim will occur are merely assumptions and not very realistic ones at that. ... The question of whether SD4LVT is a good policy change depends not on the price effects—it merely redistributes who gets what payment and when—but on efficiency effects from making housing turnover cheaper. ... In general, if you want to reallocate the economic rents that have accumulated to landowners, then a land value tax is a good way to go. But you do not need to remove another tax that achieves the same thing. Both taxes can work well together to divert economic rents from landowner to the public. (Fresh Economic Thinking)
https://www.fresheconomicthinking.com/2021/05/stamp-duty-for-lan…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, State Government, Tax.Factoring in reality
The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Scroll down to this Letter to the Editor: The editorial heralding the present housing market as “a welcome sign of return to normal” underplays the dramatic implications of the situation (“Home prices rises a welcome sign of return to normal”, May 8-9). It means that millions of Australians will be long-term or even life-long renters subject to all the vagaries of the insecure rental market. Many of those who manage to purchase will be in mortgage stress and constantly concerned about the possibility of an interest rate rise. More broadly, the increase will accentuate inequality between those who have (or whose parents have) the disposable income required for a deposit and those who don’t.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/changing-story-betrays-pm-s-…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Housing affordability crisis: Could tiny towns of tiny homes in caravan parks help?
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)Australia may have fallen in love with tiny houses, but could tiny towns of tiny houses help provide a solution to the country’s crippling home affordability crisis? One developer is currently buying up old caravan parks in Victoria – with plans to expand into other states – and replacing older caravans with architect-designed, newly made tiny houses in the overhauled, reconfigured parks. At the same time, a construction company is planning a pop-up rural village of tiny homes in an experiment being put to councils along the east coast of NSW as homes for young people, retirees on fixed incomes and those in need of cheaper housing. ... [But] Urban planner Peter Phibbs of the University of Sydney’s School of Architecture, Design and Planning said his main concerns lay with the security of tenure of residents.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/housing-affordability-crisis-coul…
# Australia, Land lease communities, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Housing market, Planning and development.Rent arrears put thousands at risk as end of eviction ban in England looms
Hilary Osborne The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Clare Austin and family live in a privately rented house in Hertfordshire. She and her husband could afford the monthly rent of £1,700 when they were both working but when he lost his job a couple of years ago, they fell behind with their payments. He got another job and things were almost back on track when Covid hit and both were furloughed. “We can’t claim anything as we’re furloughed, but my husband is a salesman and only getting 80% of his basic pay,” said Austin, who works for a travel company. “My biggest concern is the rent arrears.” The couple owe their landlord more than £3,000. Despite the ban on evictions until the end of May, he has been threatening to ask them to leave.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/may/08/rent-arrears-put-t…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Rental crisis gives rise to motel nomads as families struggle to stay off the streets
Giselle Wakatama ABC (No paywall)They are the motel nomads — homeless and in temporary accommodation, fighting to stay off the streets. The COVID-19 crisis and the winding back of government support is being blamed, along with an unprecedented rental crisis. Homelessness NSW chief executive Katherine McKernan described Australia's lack of rental properties as a "humanitarian crisis". "With the loss of JobSeeker and JobKeeper we have done some economic modelling and in Newcastle, for example, we are looking at potentially an increase in homelessness of up to about 38 per cent," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-10/motel-nomads-fighting-to-…
# Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Homelessness, Housing market, Regional NSW, State Government.Federal Budget 2021: Renters lose out in huge government cash splash
Stuart Marsh 9 News (No paywall)Australian tenants struggling to make rent were the hidden losers of last night's Federal Budget, as the Morrison government's cash splash prioritised home ownership over affordable housing. Despite extending three key initiatives to encourage first home buyers to enter the property market, there was little cash spent on easing conditions for renters or providing more affordable housing.
https://amp.9news.com.au/article/bc3b5343-ae3a-466a-8826-1c8f09e…
# Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.Governor Inslee signs bill requiring 'just cause' eviction
(Paywall)From the United States ... Landlords will be required to provide a valid reason for ending certain leases with tenants, under a measure signed into law Monday by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. Previously, landlords were allowed to end month-to-month leases with 20 days’ notice, without providing a reason. Under the measure that passed the Legislature last month, landlords can now end leases for reasons like failure to pay rent, unlawful activity and nuisance issues, as well as cases in which a landlord intends to sell or move into a rental. Landlords can still end a tenancy at the end of an initial lease without cause if the initial rental term is between six months and one year and the tenant is given 60 days written notice. Under the new law, landlords who remove tenants in violation of the rules may be subject to a penalty of up to three months’ rent plus attorney fees and costs. (The Spokesman-Review)
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/may/10/gov-inslee-signs-b…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Housing market, No-grounds evictions.How to cool the housing market is a pet subject
Alan Kohler The New Daily (No paywall)The well-meaning efforts of the federal government to help people buy a house will only make matters worse. ... A more lasting solution would be to make long-term tenancy more appealing and leases longer in this country, as they are in Europe, and at the same time encourage developers and their financiers to build apartments to rent, rather than sell to individual landlords. To get a little specific, one of the reasons for the Australian obsession with home ownership is that it’s the only way for many people to own a dog or cat. New Victorian tenancy laws force landlords to allow pets, along with a number of other pro-tenant provisions. But that’s just in Victoria and it has only just been passed, so it will take a while to sink in. Everywhere else in Australia, the landlord still rules the roost. So it’s not so much that Australians have an obsession with home ownership, but the perfectly natural obsession with having a pet. So one way to permanently take the heat out of the property market would be for other states to copy the new Victorian laws, and shift the balance of power in the system away from landlords and towards tenants.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2021/05/10/alan-kohler-housin…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Pets.