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
Kent council fined after mother and son left to live in tent in pandemic
Patrick Butler The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... A council has been fined after it removed a homeless teenager and his mother from temporary housing during the pandemic, leaving them to sofa surf and live in a tent for two months. ... “It should have been clear to the children’s services department’s funding panel that the family would suffer hardship following the withdrawal of funding as they had no other housing arrangements in place,” the ombudsman’s report concluded. “While we are sympathetic to the pressures on councils, we expect them to consider national guidance issued during the pandemic and the failure to do so was fault.”
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/23/kent-council-fin…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Victorian town of Apollo Bay on brink of healthcare crisis due lack of housing
Rachel Clayton ABC (No paywall)A Victorian town fears it's on the brink of collapse, as its only medical centre fails to find enough doctors and nurses to fill gaping holes in its roster due to "dire" rental conditions. Apollo Bay on Victoria's Surf Coast has a population of about 1,000 people and has already lost 20 rentals this year due to owners moving in or putting their home on platforms such as Airbnb. The town's rental vacancy rate has hit zero ...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-24/apollo-bay-healthcare-cri…
# Australia, Rent, Health, Housing market.How a ‘perfect storm’ of COVID-19, influencers and Airbnb created Byron Bay’s housing crisis
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Tiny homes and a community land trust are being touted as solutions to Byron Bay’s housing affordability crisis, which has been blamed on social media influencers, NIMBY activists and a lack of social housing. Short-term holiday rentals and the COVID-19 crisis have also fuelled what Byron Shire mayor Simon Richardson called “a perfect storm of conditions”.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/how-a-perfect-storm-of-covid…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Local Government, Regional NSW.‘It’s like a leaky boat’: icare home building insurance leaves taxpayers on the hook for $700m
Nigel Gladestone The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The faulty work of dodgy, disappearing and dead builders is pushing up the price of new homes and putting NSW taxpayers on the hook for more than $700 million through the government’s home warranty insurance scheme run by icare. The cost of an HBC policy has risen four times in the last two years to cover the scheme’s massive losses.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-s-like-a-leaky-boat-icare…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Housing boom may be halted by regulators or economic trends, analysts warn
Gareth Hutchens ABC (No paywall)Some analysts are warning that Australia's multi-decade property boom may be about to end, but most agree that will not happen this year with double-digit house price growth widely expected in 2021. Despite concerns about the pace of property price growth in Australia, regulators may not step in this year, analysts have warned. Without regulatory intervention, most agree property prices will keep rising through 2021, probably by 10 per cent or more.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-22/real-estate-faces-macropr…
# Australia, Housing market.How much does it cost to rent on the Gold or Sunshine Coast? More than Sydney, new data reveals
Sarah Webb Domain (No paywall)The tsunami-sized sea-change trend is sparking a rental crisis across two of Queensland’s top coastal cities, with weekly rents reaching record heights that rival parts of inner-city Sydney and Canberra. Some locals have been forced to squat or live in their cars.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/how-much-does-it-cost-to-rent-on-…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Housing market.WestConnex substrata acquisition cheats residents out of receiving fair compensation
Kate Rafferty (No paywall)Permanent acquisition of underground land due to WestConnex construction has left property owners in the Inner West battling the government for compensation. (Inner West Independent)
https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2021/04/westconnex-substrata-acquis…
# NSW, Home ownership, Planning and development, State Government.'Death by 1,000 cuts': Environmental advocate calls for overhaul of Darwin's planning
Nicholas Hynes ABC (No paywall)On the northern edge of Darwin there is a line where the suburbs stop and nature begins. But the border between the tightly -packed houses of Muirhead and the coastal bushland of Lee Point will be blurred next month, as land sales begin on a major development which will eventually welcome 3,000 residents and a new tourist precinct. ... But there are growing concerns about the potential impacts on Darwin's coastal waterways. ... Environmental advocates say the proposed subdivisions could destroy key habitats and impede natural filtration and runoff of the waterways.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-26/land-demand-buoys-darwin-…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.