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
CBA boss tips 8 per cent house price growth as low rates fuel property recovery
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn says the drop in interest rates to record lows is fuelling home buyers’ confidence, with the economic rebound prompting the bank to forecast an 8 per cent rise in house prices this year.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/cba-boss-tip…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Here’s a blueprint for an “impossible” sustainable affordable off-grid house. In the inner city
Poppy Johnston The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Take a dingy old workers cottage on a tight partly dark site in Sydney’s inner west suburbs of Newtown, ambitions for an off-grid oasis and a tight budget. Sounds unrealistic? Not for Laura Ryan.
https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/heres…
# NSW, Utilities electricity water gas, Affordable housing.Return to Covid tiers 'could plunge millions in England into crisis'
Diane Taylor The Guardian (No paywall)Millions of people face emotional and financial crisis if England returns to a tiered system of restrictions after lockdown ... The charity warned that large numbers of people were at risk of going without essentials such as food, clothes and energy unless the government took action to boost cash support when the nation emerged from lockdown once again.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/09/return-to-covid-ti…
# Hot topic International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Welfare.'Tax retirees’ super to pay for aged care’: ACOSS
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Retirees could face a 15 per cent tax on superannuation earnings to help fund aged-care services under a federal budget proposal from the Australian Council of Social Service, while the long-term unemployed would be put into training or subsidised work experience.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/tax-retirees-super-to-pa…
# Australia, Older people, Tax.‘We were not consulted’: Zempilas vents frustration over Labor’s promise to house 100 rough sleepers
Marta Pascual Juanola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas has critcised the state government over plans to house 100 rough sleepers in an empty hostel in Wellington Street if re-elected, saying the council wasn’t consulted.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/we-were-not-co…
# Australia, Homelessness.The Woolloongabba housing complex with a focus on affordable rent
Kelly Higgins-Divine ABC (No paywall)It's hard to find a rental for love or money at the moment. ... It's harder again for young people at risk of homelessness, who have the greatest difficulty accessing affordable and safe accommodation. But this month, a new affordable housing complex on Cornwall Street in Woolloongabba will welcome its first residents.
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/brisbane/programs/mornings/woolloon…
# Audio Australia, Affordable housing.'Uncertainty makes it worse': living in a car and fearing the end of the Covid supplement
Luke Henriques-Gomes The Guardian (No paywall)My name is Joey King and I am 52 years old. For nearly two years I have mostly been living in my car and on what [used to be] called Newstart, now the jobseeker payment.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/feb/08/uncertain…
# Must read Australia, Homelessness, Personal stories.More than a million Aussies are struggling to pay their rent
(No paywall)Over a million low-income earners are struggling to pay rent, despite an increase in welfare payments during the pandemic. Experts say it's a sign the country's rental crisis is worsening... and without urgent action, many may wind up homeless. (10 play)
https://10play.com.au/theproject/news/2021/more-than-a-million-a…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.