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
Down and out in Johannesburg: Understanding homelessness
Harriet Perlman and Sarah Charlton (No paywall)Sunday 21 March is Human Rights Day in South Africa. One of the rights in our Constitution is the right of ‘everyone to have access to adequate housing’. And yet homelessness is growing. In a series of articles being published over the next three days, Maverick Citizen asked homeless people to write about their experiences. First, an overview of the homeless crisis in Johannesburg.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-03-17-down-and-out-…
# International, Homelessness, Housing market.Indigenous communities should dictate how $1 billion infrastructure investment is spent
Kerry Black The Conversation (No paywall)We finally have a chance to get it right. For the first time in history, Canada has launched a $1 billion investment dedicated to First Nations, Métis and Inuit infrastructure. The Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB) is establishing the Indigenous Community Infrastructure Initiative (ICII), which will enable the building of new infrastructure projects in Indigenous communities and help generate investments in projects that are vital to economic growth and environmental protection.
https://theconversation.com/indigenous-communities-should-dictat…
# International, Planning and development, Race and ethnicity.HomeBuilder: Cost of materials spikes as property market runs hot
Euan Black The New Daily (No paywall)Rampant demand in the renovation and home building sector is hitting customers with significant delays and pushing up the price of materials. And disruptions to international supply chains are only making matters worse.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/03/31/home-buil…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.HomeBuilder fuels record house approvals
Colin Brinsden The New Daily (No paywall)Approvals to build private homes struck a record high in February, fuelled by the federal government’s HomeBuilder grants program which is due to end on Wednesday. ... HomeBuilder has driven strong demand for new homes across the country,” Housing Industry Association chief economist Tim Reardon said. ... The HomeBuilder scheme was introduced during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic and late last year was extended to March, although the size of grants were trimmed from $25,000 to $15,000.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/03/31/homebuild…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.Hobart housing affordability is as bad as Sydney’s: NHFIC
Tawar Razaghi Domain (Paywall)Low-income earners in Hobart are unable to buy or rent the majority of properties on the market with the housing affordability crisis on par with some of the country’s most-expensive cities, new research reveals. The bottom 40 per cent of income earners in Hobart and Sydney are unable to afford to buy or rent 90 per cent of properties in either markets, according to the National Housing Finance Investment Corporation. Renters or potential first-home buyers who earn slightly more money are not much better off — even the bottom 60 per cent of income earners are only able to afford to rent or buy just 10-20 per cent of properties.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/hobart-housing-affordability-as-b…
# Research alert Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market.Across the UK, environmental protest is surging. So why don't we hear about it?
Ros Coward The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... It’s not surprising that politicians downplay and “localise” such protests as lacking national significance. Given the government’s “build, build, build” agenda, it’s best not to let voters know that what’s happening to other communities will soon happen to them. But why isn’t the media paying more attention, especially outlets with environment correspondents? There were a few headlines about “greedy” Eton selling 500 acres of unspoilt countryside on the edge of the South Downs national park for 3,000 houses, but most environmental protests go unreported. So cumulative issues about the suburbanisation of the countryside, the scale of the loss of open space, and the catastrophic failure to protect our biodiversity, are simply not addressed.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/04/uk-environ…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.Melbourne is getting closer to overtaking Sydney in population – what does it mean for both cities?
Elias Visontay The Guardian (No paywall)The southern capital is now the closest it has been since 1930 to overtaking Sydney as Australia’s most populous city. Sydney grew by 57,100 people to 5.4 million residents over the 2019-20 financial year, an increase trumped by the 80,100 residents Melbourne added in the same period to bring its population to 5.2 million, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics last week.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/04/melbourne…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.The unlikely resident fighting back against the NSW Government’s war on public housing
Daniel Lo Surdo (No paywall)Leading an emotion-fuelled campaign against the monoliths of the NSW Government is a responsibility Louisa Blair never thought she would shoulder. The 30-year resident of the Explorer Street public housing estate in Eveleigh describes herself as more bashful than boisterous; not the sort to ordinarily welcome newcomers into her living room with tea and chocolate biscuits. But when Blair spots injustice, she refuses to stay silent. (Inner West Independent)
https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2021/03/the-unlikely-resident-fight…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Campaigns and law reform, Estate renewal, State Government.