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
Housing and the 2021 Budget
Peter Phibbs Pearls and Irritations (No paywall)The 2021 Budget provided little encouragement for Australians in housing needs but provided the predictable range of homeownership programs that will help pump up demand and prices. ... As Adrian Pisarski from National Shelter says: “It will put ownership further out of reach for the many while benefitting the few.” The focus is very much on the demand side of the equation and does little to help increase the supply of affordable housing stock.
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership.Anthony Albanese pledges $10bn social housing fund in Labor’s federal budget reply
Sarah Martin The Guardian (No paywall)Anthony Albanese will establish a new $10bn social housing fund to build 30,000 affordable homes for vulnerable Australians and frontline workers if Labor wins the next federal election, as he promises to “deliver for working families” as prime minister.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/13/anthony-a…
# Australia, Domestic violence, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Older people, Women.‘It feels gross’: ad for Sydney’s ‘luxury’ Sirius building criticised as insult to former social housing tenants
Naaman Zhou The Guardian (No paywall)A glossy newspaper ad selling “reimagined” luxury apartments in Sydney’s iconic Sirius Building has been condemned as tone-deaf and “gross” for implying the previous public housing tenants did not deserve to live near Sydney Harbour. The Sirius building was built in the 1970s to provide social housing for low-income residents of Sydney’s The Rocks district. The Berejiklian government sold it to private developers in 2019 for $150m as property prices in the harbourside location skyrocketed.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/15/it-feels-…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing, Estate renewal, Housing affordability, Housing market, State Government.There are many battles to be fought over the housing reforms outlined in the Queen’s Speech
Jules Birch Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Scratch beneath the surface of the reforms planned for the next parliamentary session and you see a story of delays and battles yet to be fought ... At first glance this is a Queen’s Speech that looks full of welcome reforms to planning and the delivery of new homes, conditions for renters and leaseholders, and building safety. Scratch beneath the surface in the background briefing notes, though, and big questions remain and there are big battles to come. ... sounds great until you realise two things. First, a Renters’ Reform Bill was promised 17 months ago in the Queen’s Speech in December 2019 with no mention of a white paper first. Extra scrutiny in a white paper may reduce the chances of bad legislation but reform is receding into the distance. Second, while that reference to landlord registration is welcome, this was recommended 13 years ago in the Rugg Review for the last Labour government. What took this one so long? The only question seems to be which will take longer: “as soon as practicable”, or “in due course”, or “exploring”?
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/there-are-many-battles-t…
# International, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, No-grounds evictions.Fighting dispossession
Ben Verghese and Ilham Rawoot (Paywall)From South Africa ... Twenty-five years after the end of apartheid in South Africa, land and housing inequalities remain marked. Citizens’ groups are resisting gentrification, evictions and housing inequality in urban South Africa in a variety of creative ways. ... [Read on] (New Internationalist)
# International, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent, Campaigns and law reform, Squatting, Women.Victorian property investors hit with land tax, stamp duty increase in state budget
ABC (No paywall)[New windfall gains tax ...] Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas says next week's state budget will include tax increases and public sector savings as the government takes the "hard and necessary actions" needed to rebalance the books. ... The changes will see the land tax increase by 0.25 per cent for taxable land holdings between $1.8 million and $3 million, and 0.30 per cent for taxable land holdings in excess of $3 million. A new windfall gains tax will be also introduced for properties whose value is boosted by a council rezoning. The tax will only apply to properties where the value is boosted by more than $100,000, with a 50 per cent tax on windfalls above $500,000. Mr Pallas said the move would claw back around $40 million a year from developers and speculators who made huge profits after a local council's "stroke of a pen" to rezone industrial land for residential use. ... "There needs to be a balance between those wanting to buy their first property and large property investors who continue to profit from soaring property values," he said.
[And read about Victoria' new social housing ground-lease model ... ] The government has also laid out how a private-public partnership will create hundreds of social housing units as part of its $5.3 billion public housing build. Under the plan, 1,110 new homes will be built on government-owned land in Brighton, Flemington and Prahran — which the government said would replace 445 "outdated" social housing units at the sites which had already been demolished. The homes will be a mix of 619 social housing dwellings, 126 affordable homes and 365 market rental homes, including 52 specialist disability accommodation dwellings. The government will put in $50 million while a private consortium will provide $465 million upfront to construct the homes. The consortium will have a lease on the sites for 40 years, collecting income from the rent and maintaining the properties. The state government will repay the $465 million to the consortium during that 40-year period. Planning Minister Richard Wynne said after that time, all the property and homes would return to government hands to become social housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-15/victorian-budget-property…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market, Landlords and agents, State Government, Tax.Federal Budget 2021: Measures will boost housing demand without increasing much-needed supply, experts say
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)This year’s federal budget has been dubbed yet “another missed opportunity”, with experts concerned measures will only further fuel rapid price gains and do little to improve housing affordability. Measures that could improve housing affordability long term, particularly increased funding to build more social and affordable housing, were overlooked in favour of schemes that brought forward housing demand – which experts say support individual buyers but ultimately push up property prices.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/federal-budget-2021-measures-to-b…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market.Coalition’s $17.7bn aged care budget pledge ‘falls well short’ of what is needed, experts warn
Elias Visontay The Guardian (No paywall)Aged care experts are warning the Morrison government’s budget commitment of $17.7bn for the sector “falls well short” of what is needed for generational reform and to avoid workforce and transparency “vulnerabilities”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/12/budget-20…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people.