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
Speculators in Crosshairs of NZ Housing Reforms
Dinah Lewis Boucher (No paywall)New Zealand will increase housing supply and remove incentives for speculators as it attempts to rein in the nation's runaway house prices and prevent a housing bubble. (The Urban Developer)
https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/new-zealand-spends-billio…
# Hot topic International, Federal Government, Housing market, Landlords and agents.What now? NSW Rental Eviction Moratorium ends
Marlene Even (No paywall)Many housing and community groups are concerned that the end of the NSW Government’s COVID-19 rental eviction moratorium will have dire impacts on low-income renters. This Friday (March 26) the NSW Government’s moratorium is coming to an end which coincides with the end of the JobKeeper scheme and JobSeeker coronavirus supplement. (2ser)
https://2ser.com/what-now-nsw-rental-eviction-moratorium-ends/
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media, Video NSW, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.Homelessness services fear turning people away if wage funding isn’t renewed
Nick Bonyhady The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Homelessness services fear they will be forced to cut the hours they can take in people, including women fleeing domestic violence at night, if federal pay equality funding is not renewed.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/homelessness-services-fe…
# Australia, Federal Government, Homelessness, State Government.What Australia can learn from New Zealand’s efforts to combat a runaway housing market
Matt Johnson The New Daily (No paywall)Housing analysts say a decision by our friends across the ditch to phase out negative gearing and other investor tax concessions could be a sign of things to come in Australia.
The Ardern government on Tuesday announced new measures to curtail an investor-led housing bubble, driven by nosediving interest rates, that has seen prices surge nearly 22 per cent in just one year.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/03/24/australia…
# Hot topic International, Federal Government, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.How to improve public health, the environment and racial equity all at once: Upgrade low-income housing
Jonathan Levy The Conversation (No paywall)From the United States ... As an environmental health researcher, I have studied ways in which inadequate housing influences health and disproportionately affects low-income families and communities of color. In my view, retrofitting low-income housing in particular is a high-leverage way to tackle some of our nation’s most pressing health, social and environmental challenges.
https://theconversation.com/how-to-improve-public-health-the-env…
# International, Discrimination, Public and community housing, Health, Housing market, Human rights.We need not live on the edge, where fire and flood will overrun us
George Morgan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)One of the hallmarks of western “civilisation” is our belief that we can master the forces of nature through the power of reason. Ever since our ancestors first gathered in cities about 6000 years ago, they believed that engineering know-how would make us less vulnerable than those in the hinterland. But at certain moments this belief seems like hubris. ... The extreme weather associated with climate change has thrown into question the way we build our cities.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/we-need-not-live-on-the-edge…
# Hot topic NSW, Planning and development.Melbourne house prices tipped for biggest surge in a decade
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)House prices are tipped to grow at their fastest pace since the late 1980s, with Melbourne prices expected to lift by 16 per cent this year, the largest single-year increase since 2010.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-house-prices-…
# Hot topic Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market.Targeting New Zealand's property speculators is popular, but won't fix the housing crisis
Bryce Edwards The Guardian (No paywall)Property speculators have become public enemy number one in New Zealand’s rampant housing affordability crisis. Those buying, selling and renting out multiple properties have become wealthy at the expense of those in the middle and at the bottom of the market, who are paying high rents and struggling to afford to buy decent housing. It is no surprise therefore that the housing announcement by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her colleagues on Tuesday was firmly focused on reining in those investors driving up the prices – with the most significant elements of the package designed to hit investors with increased tax responsibilities.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/23/targeting-new-zeal…
# International, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.