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
First home buyers flood back into market on low rates, rising house prices
Clancy Yeates and Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)First home buyers are flooding back into the property market lured by ultra-low interest rates and government support, with two of the nation’s biggest mortgage brokers experiencing a surge in loan applications from young buyers. ... But while the lending surge is underway, analysts are predicting a modest rise in foreclosures as banks stop offering automatic home loan deferrals for customers thrown into financial stress by the pandemic.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/first-home-b…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing market.Banks pressuring customers to make unrealistic loan repayments as deferrals end
Rachel Clayton ABC (No paywall)Borrowers are being pressured by banks to make "significant, bulk" payments as loan deferrals begin wrapping up. Last year, the economic impact of coronavirus forced banks to offer home owners mortgage payment 'holidays'. About 10 per cent of borrowers accepted and paused their payments. In July, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) announced banks could extend mortgage holidays to their customers by four months, to cover a maximum period of 10 months from the start of a repayment deferral, or until March 31, whichever came first. With that March deadline looming ... [read more].
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-20/mortgage-customers-pressu…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing market.Government-approved housing plans leave tenants of 70 former miners’ homes facing eviction
Peter Lazenby (No paywall)From United KIngdom, tenants of 70 former miners’ homes in Yorkshire face eviction and homelessness after the government approved a developer’s plans to demolish and replace the estate with luxury housing. (Morning Star)
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/government-approved-ho…
# International, Eviction, Homelessness, Housing market.Russell Hall on the truth about covenants and housing affordability
Russell Hall The Fifth Estate (No paywall)According to Brisbane-based architect Russell Hall, governments weaponise developers with the right to inflict buyers with the developer’s whims as conditions of purchase via covenants. He says this can make homes unaffordable and unsustainable.
https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/russell-hall-…
# Legal significance Australia, Housing affordability.HomeBuilder grant applications soar above expectations as buyers rush to build new homes
Melissa Heagney Domain (Paywall)Take up of the federal government’s HomeBuilder scheme has smashed expectations, with more than 75,000 households applying for the grants.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/homebuilder-grant-applications-so…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Home ownership.Thousands of elderly wait more than 28 months for access to high-needs home care packages
Rachel Clun The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Thousands of older Australians waited more than two years to access already approved high-level home care packages. And more than half of all older people approved for residential aged care waited more than three months in 2019-20 to enter their new home, a Productivity Commission report on government services found.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/thousands-of-elderly-wai…
# Australia, Federal Government, Older people, Welfare.Major banks to stop accepting COVID-19 mortgage holiday applications
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Australia's biggest banks will stop giving automatic mortgage holidays to home owners struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic, as major lenders contact tens of thousands of customers who are yet to start repaying their loans. ... ABA chief executive Anna Bligh said hundreds of thousands of home owners had been helped during the pandemic by loan deferrals. "Banks know that some customers are still struggling ... just as they helped last year, Australian banks are ready to continue supporting their customers in 2021."
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/major-banks-to-stop-acce…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership.Fixed interest rates may have reached rock bottom, say economists
David Taylor ABC (No paywall)AMP Capital's Head of Investment Strategy Shane Oliver [said]: "It's very hard to see fixed rates going a lot lower unless the Reserve Bank is prepared to take interest rates, including the three-year bond yield, negative ... [The RBA] on previous occasions have said that's very unlikely."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-20/rba-bond-purchases-point-…
# Australia, Housing market.