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
The future of community housing includes social solutions
Amanda Woodard The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Demand for community housing is on the rise. It’s not just because there is a housing shortage – New South Wales alone has an immediate shortfall of around 200,000 social and affordable houses – but also because community housing alleviates social problems.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/the-futur…
# NSW, Public and community housing.Tasmanian Greens to introduce bill to keep rental increases in line with CPI
Annah Fromberg ABC (No paywall)We signed a lease in January and the lease had said that the rent was going to be $220 per week and that was fine no problem, we've been living there five years," she said. "Then last week we got an email stating that they were looking to increase our rent to $350 per week starting in May." ... Greens Leader Cassy O'Connor will today introduce a bill into state parliament that aims to implement the model for rent increases used in the Australian Capital Territory, where rent increases are in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI), plus 10 per cent.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-18/greens-rent-increase-cpi/…
# Legal significance Australia, Rent, Housing market.Can America Learn From France’s Award-Winning Public Housing Architects?
Kriston Capps (No paywall)For their socially oriented projects, Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, an award typically reserved for high-flying design. ... The architects rejected the official strategy of demolition and reconstruction [of public housing], prioritizing transformation in place. ... [And, in the United States, progressive advocates and lawmakers are turning back to public housing] ... with their proposed Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made retrofits for public housing the engine for jobs and climate action.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-17/pritzker-priz…
# International, Public and community housing, Estate renewal.Renting Is Terrible. Owning Is Worse.
Shane Phillips (No paywall)America conceives of itself as an “ownership society.” Nearly two-thirds of U.S. households own their home, and the idea of renting is inseparable from ownership in the U.S. context. Renting is given meaning by its relationship to ownership—it’s how you live if you can’t afford, or aren’t yet ready, to own. America treats renting as it has treated the minimum wage for the past several decades: unworthy of serious concern, just a phase in young people’s lives, and a long-term outcome only for those unwilling to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. This perspective is a big part of why renters enjoy so few protections, and why the U.S. showers roughly $150 billion on homeowners each year but only a fraction of that on renters, despite renters having about half the median household income of owners. [Read on ...] (The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/why-its-better…
# International, Public and community housing, Rent, Home ownership.Housing market tipped to power on despite end of JobKeeper: economists
Tawar Razaghi Domain (Paywall)The property market is set to roll on full steam ahead despite economic support measures coming to an end from this week, defying long-held worries about a looming fiscal cliff, according to top economists. The strength of bricks and mortar barely crumbled during the pandemic-induced recession, with property prices edging lower briefly then soaring in major cities and regional towns – flying in the face of forecasts.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/housing-market-tipped-to-power-on…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.First homebuyers urged to proceed with caution as Sydney's housing surge continues
Kathleen Calderwood ABC (No paywall)It’s a cold reality of Sydney’s white-hot property market and experts are warning it could land newly minted homeowners in trouble. ... It’s prompted a warning some people could be taking on more debt than they can handle.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-20/first-homebuyers-cautione…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market.Sydney’s cluster of Seidler buildings at risk of being demolished
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Buildings designed by internationally acclaimed architect Harry Seidler are at risk of being bulldozed under Sydney’s planning rules that do not recognise the 1960s apartment blocks as having heritage value. The City of Sydney council classifies Seidler’s unit blocks as detracting from the heritage precincts around Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay in Sydney’s inner east because they’re only 50 to 60 years old. “At the moment, heritage is the only means we have of recognising qualities of buildings,” said architect Philip Thalis, who is also a City of Sydney councillor.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-s-cluster-of-seidler-…
# NSW, Heritage listings.Why buyers should think twice before taking out a low-deposit home loan
Matt Johnson The New Daily (No paywall)Australians have been warned to consider the ‘what ifs’ before taking on a low-deposit mortgage as buyers swallow more risk to beat the house price surge.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/03/18/high-risk…
# Australia, Home ownership.