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 gap between Australian house prices and incomes is only likely to grow
Greg Jericho The Guardian (No paywall)Australians love of housing continues with even more vigour during the Covid recession – powered by government incentives and record low interest rates, which look set to remain low for many years.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2021/jan/19/the…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing market.RBA report highlights risks of axing responsible lending laws
Matt Johnson The New Daily (No paywall)An internal Reserve Bank report outlining the negative effects of long-term low interest rates has strengthened the case for retaining responsible lending standards, economists have argued.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/01/18/rba-repor…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Sicilian town offers fresh chance to snap up house for €1
Nick Squires The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)From Italy ... A picturesque hilltop town in Sicily is preparing to offer 15 historic houses for sale, each for just €1 ($1.57). ... [Following the first phase of the project] Sambuca had been revitalised and turned into "a little United Nations". "It's been good for us because a lot of the buyers have been under the age of 40, which is important for a town like ours with an ageing population'.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/sicilian-town-offers-second-…
# International, Heritage listings, Housing market.'Grossly inadequate': Housing advocates reject Waterloo high-rise plan
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Housing advocates have seized on plans to build offices and more than 600 residences in towers above and around the future Waterloo metro station to demand more social and affordable homes in Sydney's inner south. ... Shelter NSW said plans for fewer than 100 social and affordable homes would do little to ease housing stress, as the waiting list for social housing in NSW passes 51,000, including more than 4000 people on a "priority" list. ... Waterloo Public Housing Action Group said the number of homes was "grossly inadequate to meet the affordable housing needs of the area for a redevelopment of this scale and significance on public land. We propose that this project be rejected and a new the original housing ... targets in line with the community's vision be adhered to."
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/grossly-inadequate-housing-a…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, DCJ Housing.Rental crisis forces West Australians to surrender pets to animal shelters
Tyne Logan ABC (No paywall)The manager of an animal shelter in Western Australia says the state's rental shortage is forcing several people to give up their pets just to secure accommodation. Vacancy rates for rentals around the state have plummeted over recent months.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-17/rental-crisis-forces-peop…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Housing market, Pets.Canberra's rental crisis is forcing many to spend weeks searching for a home as prices go beyond 'affordable'
Rosie King ABC (No paywall)Finding a rental property in Canberra at this time of year is almost always a battle, as hordes of people flock to the national capital to start university and take up new jobs. But as the country remains in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic, there was hope among prospective tenants that this year would be less brutal. It's not. In fact, it's worse. Read on ...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-17/canberras-rental-crisis-d…
# Australia, Rent, Affordable housing, Housing market.Most of Melbourne's slum pockets were demolished, but a few survived
Tim Callanan ABC (No paywall)Social reformer F Oswald Barnett, a devout Methodist ... did more to highlight conditions in Melbourne's poorest suburbs than any other person of his time. In his mind, poor-quality housing and social decay were linked, and it was vital that one be destroyed before it led to the other. "We have a great and holy war ahead of us, and it should arouse within us no less a flame than burned in the hearts of Englishmen who determined to abolish slavery," he wrote. Read on ...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-18/how-f-oswald-barnett-trie…
# History Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.Beam Me Up Softlord
Sydney Smith (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... I live in a flatshare. Late one evening a few months back, we needed some emergency maintenance done – needing a fix sharpish, we called someone out and paid upfront. The next day we asked our landlord to reimburse us for the cost of this maintenance; he replied with a text saying that he was unwilling to cough up because the tone of our request (which had been business-like, at the outside) had really “hurt his feelings”. (The Social Review)
https://www.thesocialreview.co.uk/2020/05/29/beam-me-up-softlord/
# International, Repairs, Landlords and agents.