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
‘Release the hounds!’: Buying a house in Sydney is a game of ruthless psychological warfare
Penny Flanagan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)If you are trying to buy a home in Sydney, get ready for a ruthless game of psychological warfare. And I’m not talking about the game you’ll have to play with the real estate agent; the time-honoured game called “What’s the price guide? No, really, what’s the price guide?′ I’m talking about the passive aggressive game of “It’s already ours suckers, so don’t even bother” that happens at the Saturday open for inspection. It’s a shrewd psyche-out contest, much like poker and the aim is to put everyone else off their buying game.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/release-the-hounds-buying-a-…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market.Labour’s new housing chief wants to work with Tories to scrap S21
Graham Norwood (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Labour’s Lucy Powell, the party’s new housing spokesperson, says she wants to work with the Conservatives to scrap Section 21 eviction powers. Abolishing S21, as part of what the government calls the Renters Reform Act, has been a pledge since the 2019 General Election, which the Conservatives won by a landslide. Powell, appointed shadow housing minister in Labour’s recent reshuffle, now says in a statement on Twitter: “Labour has warned time and again that ending the evictions ban ... is gambling with people’s livelihoods and life chances. The Housing Secretary must keep his promise that nobody will lose their home because of Coronavirus. “Ministers should work with us on emergency legislation to end Section 21 ‘no fault evictions’ now. Instead the government has kicked its pledge to protect renters into the long grass. Now, they’re stripping away emergency protections without any plan to prevent a crisis.”
https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2021/6/labours…
# International, Eviction, Coronavirus COVID-19, No-grounds evictions.Thousands to receive extra housing support as eviction ban ends
Katy Scott (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Thousands of vulnerable young people could receive extra help to pay their rent under fast-tracked changes to housing benefits announced by the government, as charities warn of a “tsunami” of renters being thrown out of their homes with the end of the eviction ban. (The Big Issue)
https://www.bigissue.com/latest/thousands-to-receive-extra-housi…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Young people.First-home buyer stamp duty concessions are about to change in the Northern Territory
Felicity James ABC (No paywall)Leah Brown and her partner Darren are feeling the pressure to buy a house after a significant rent hike. They are searching in Darwin, where rental vacancy rates are among the tightest in the country – their rent has jumped by $150 a week. ... But they are trying to enter the market and buy their first property at a time when the NT Government is preparing to scrap its stamp duty exemption for first-home buyers. The decision to scrap a stamp duty exemption worth almost $20,000 at the end June – the Territory Home Owner Discount – means Ms Brown and her family will need more money for a deposit.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-31/nt-first-home-buyers-conc…
# Australia, Home ownership, Tax.Australian house prices to rise by 15 per cent this year but slow in 2022
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)House prices across Australia will rise by 15 per cent by the end of the year before slowing to just 5 per cent in 2022, a new Westpac Housing Pulse has revealed.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/australian-house-prices-to-rise-b…
# Australia, Housing market.‘Lists and sags’: Questions around PEXA’s $3.3b valuation
Charlotte Grieve and Colin Kruger The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Property settlements platform PEXA is set to become the largest float in almost three years after its majority shareholder Link Administration opted to maximise the company’s potential value. ... PEXA is a private company owned by Link, Commonwealth Bank and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners that has gained a dominant market share in online property lodgements and settlements since launching in 2010.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/link-confirm…
# Australia, Housing market.Australia still in a property boom as values rise by 2.2 per cent in just one month
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Australia’s property boom has picked up pace again, with national housing values rising 2.2 per cent in May, new data shows.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/australias-housing-boom-rolls-on-…
# Australia, Housing market.RBA keeps interest rates at record low of 0.1% as housing prices hit record highs
Naaman Zhou The Guardian (No paywall)The reserve bank has continued to hold interest rates at a record low of 0.1% as house prices across Australia keep rising. The national housing market rose 2.2% in May, according to the latest data from CoreLogic, following on from a 1.8% rise in April and a 32-year record rise in March of 2.8%.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/01/rba-keeps…
# Australia, Housing market.