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
Ghana’s new rental scheme won’t fix the real problem: a housing shortage
Nicky Morrison, Emmanuel Kofi Gavu and others The Conversation (No paywall)Ghana’s government has announced a loan scheme to help tenants pay the hefty advance rent (often covering two years) to private landlords. Advance rent is also prevalent in several other African countries.
https://theconversation.com/ghanas-new-rental-scheme-wont-fix-th…
# International, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market.Rental vacancy rates back at pre-pandemic levels: Domain data
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Australia’s rental vacancy rate is back at pre-pandemic levels, new data shows, but up to one in 10 rental homes are still sitting empty in some pockets. Vacancy rates dropped in both Sydney and Melbourne over April to 2.9 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively, as more tenants returned to the inner-city markets where rental demand and asking prices were hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic. The proportion of homes left vacant held steady at 1.4 per cent in Brisbane, Domain data shows, with fewer than one in 100 rental homes left vacant across the other capital cities – where rates either held steady or lifted marginally month on month.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/rental-vacancy-rates-back-at-pre-…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.Home buyers face rising house prices and investor competition, or tougher rules on home loans
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Hopeful home buyers face the unenviable prospect of competing with investors in a property market that has further to rise – or possible clamps on lending that could make it harder to get a home loan. Property investors are flooding back as loans to first-home buyers dip, official figures released on Tuesday show, attracted to the prospect of capital gains and the improving outlook for rents.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/home-buyers-face-rising-house-pri…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Speculators back in the game to push up property prices
Elizabeth Knight The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Investors in residential property have come out of hibernation and were the driving force behind the record 5.5 per cent increase in housing finance in March. Having kept a low profile during the pandemic, investors and speculators are now returning to the market with gusto. And that suggests only one thing – home prices will continue to be pushed higher.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/speculators-back-in-the-g…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.RBA more bullish on economy as it holds rates at record low
Shane Wright and Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The Reserve Bank expects the economy will grow faster and unemployment fall further than it did just three months ago ... Dr Lowe noted housing markets had strengthened, with prices up in all major markets on the back of strong demand from owner-occupiers. “Given the environment of rising housing prices and low interest rates, the bank will be monitoring trends in housing borrowing carefully and it is important that lending standards are maintained,” he said.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/house-prices-rise-again-…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.The House Price Pass The Parcel Blame Game
Martin North (No paywall)More Federal and State Government blame-shifting as they try to avoid the real question of who is really responsible for the ultra-high home prices in Australia. (Digital Finance Analytics)
https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/the-house-price-pass-th…
# Video Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, Planning and development, Tax.Clearing land for housing negates benefits of tree-planting push, experts warn
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)The breakneck pace of new housing development is stymieing a push to plant more trees to counteract the urban heat-island effect, experts warn. Governments have been pushing tree-planting as a solution to high temperatures in neighbourhoods where there is a lot of new building. But more homes are being built than the number of trees planted in major cities, undoing the new trees’ benefits, according to Dr Tony Matthews, an urban and environmental planner ...
https://www.domain.com.au/news/clearing-land-for-housing-negates…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.Property price growth outstrips rents, especially for inner-city apartments, data shows
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Property price growth is outstripping rent growth in Australia’s largest cities as the housing market booms, with the gap most pronounced in the weakened inner-city apartment markets.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/property-price-growth-outstrips-r…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.