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
Flood insurance costing $30,000 highlights which areas should not be developed for housing
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)Thousands of the people enduring the heartbreaking sight of their homes sinking beneath a rising brown tide across the east of NSW are doing so knowing they don't have insurance coverage. ... The reason so many are uninsured is either that their insurer won't offer flood protection at all, or that it is prohibitively expensive, with residential premiums of up to $30,000 a year being cited. ... State Emergency Service planner and former deputy commissioner Chas Keys has [said] ... "We are putting thousands and thousands of people on flood plains between Penrith and downstream of Windsor in the valley of South Creek and the valley of the Hawkesbury proper," he said. "Now flood plains are bound to flood, they are designed by nature to flood, and we are aiming to double the population of the Hawkesbury-Nepean over certain years, to me there is a certain insanity in that."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-23/flood-insurance-costing-3…
# NSW, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.'The worst I've ever seen': The appalling and 'unliveable' council housing conditions some have endured during lockdown
Daniel Hewitt (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... It is impossible to put into words the appalling conditions we found people living in, in Croydon, south London. Not even the pictures you can see below do justice to the dangerous squalor residents, some of them young children, have been forced to endure for months. Before you even see the black mould and the damp inside the flats, you can smell it in the corridors. (ITV)
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-03-22/the-worst-ive-ever-seen-the-…
# Video International, Public and community housing, Repairs, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Mould.Risk of 'abrupt stop' in housing market, economist says
Susan Edmunds (No paywall)From New Zealand ... New Government policies intended to shift the balance of the property market more in favour of first-home buyers risk bringing it to a “more abrupt stop” than intended, a leading economist says. A range of new measures were announced on Tuesday, including $3.8 billion for infrastructure, an extension of the bright-line test that means some investors pay tax on their gains when they sell properties, and the removal of interest deductibility. This last point will be important to many investors. ... ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner said '... In my view it’s well worth sacrificing a bit of economic activity at this point to head off house prices that are doing so much damage to our society'. (Stuff)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300259437/risk--of-abrupt-stop-…
# International, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.NSW floods could expose underinsurance. Here’s how to protect yourself
Matt Johnson The New Daily (No paywall)Another year, another ‘once-in-a-century’ natural disaster. Flooding on New South Wales’ mid-north coast has thrust non-insurance against climate change risks into the spotlight after the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) declared a catastrophe.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/your-budget/2021/03/22/underi…
# Australia, .Micro-town gives people with cognitive impairment, dementia independence and social engagement
Edwina Seselja and Trina McLellan ABC (No paywall)
A small community in Bellmere, just north of Brisbane, is turning the traditional aged care model on its head, providing a sense of independence, engagement and normalcy to its 120 residents, many of whom live with cognitive impairment such as dementia.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-20/the-micro-town-helping-pe…
# Australia, Disability, Home, Older people.NSW floods: free land titling support for property owners affected by flooding
(No paywall)Property searches and plans can assist landholders with insurance claims and development applications to council, as well as provide peace of mind regarding land ownership in the aftermath of natural disasters. Adam Bennett, NSW Land Registry Services CEO, said having fast and free access to land titles could help bring peace of mind to affected property owners when the clean-up starts. (Land Registry Services)
# NSW, .Forgotten land of Haberfield sinks into the bog
Harriet Alexander The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Time might have forgotten the $18 million development site that has stood idle for nearly two decades in the middle of Haberfield, but the recent weather system has not. The 1.9-hectare paddock, six kilometres from the CBD, has remained undeveloped since the Department of Defence sold it to 21 parties in 2003, because engineers have been unable to come up with an affordable and effective way of draining the site. It sits below sea level and within 100 metres of Hawthorne Canal and collects the suburb’s accumulated stormwater. Recently, it has morphed into a swamp.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/forgotten-land-of-haberfield…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Sydney real estate mystery: the $18m inner-city land untouched for 18 years
Harriet Alexander The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Nobody in the neighbourhood remembers the exact date in 2003 when 1.9 hectares of disused army land was put to market in the heritage suburb of Haberfield, but they all remember that it was Mother’s Day. It was the mother of all Mother’s Days. ... Eighteen years later, the land remains dormant, overgrown with grass and soggy after rain ...
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-real-estate-mystery-t…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.