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
What now? NSW Rental Eviction Moratorium ends
Marlene Even (No paywall)Many housing and community groups are concerned that the end of the NSW Government’s COVID-19 rental eviction moratorium will have dire impacts on low-income renters. This Friday (March 26) the NSW Government’s moratorium is coming to an end which coincides with the end of the JobKeeper scheme and JobSeeker coronavirus supplement. (2ser)
https://2ser.com/what-now-nsw-rental-eviction-moratorium-ends/
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media, Video NSW, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.Speculators in Crosshairs of NZ Housing Reforms
Dinah Lewis Boucher (No paywall)New Zealand will increase housing supply and remove incentives for speculators as it attempts to rein in the nation's runaway house prices and prevent a housing bubble. (The Urban Developer)
https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/new-zealand-spends-billio…
# Hot topic International, Federal Government, Housing market, Landlords and agents.What Australia can learn from New Zealand’s efforts to combat a runaway housing market
Matt Johnson The New Daily (No paywall)Housing analysts say a decision by our friends across the ditch to phase out negative gearing and other investor tax concessions could be a sign of things to come in Australia.
The Ardern government on Tuesday announced new measures to curtail an investor-led housing bubble, driven by nosediving interest rates, that has seen prices surge nearly 22 per cent in just one year.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/03/24/australia…
# Hot topic International, Federal Government, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.NSW floods: free land titling support for property owners affected by flooding
(No paywall)Property searches and plans can assist landholders with insurance claims and development applications to council, as well as provide peace of mind regarding land ownership in the aftermath of natural disasters. Adam Bennett, NSW Land Registry Services CEO, said having fast and free access to land titles could help bring peace of mind to affected property owners when the clean-up starts. (Land Registry Services)
# NSW, .Micro-town gives people with cognitive impairment, dementia independence and social engagement
Edwina Seselja and Trina McLellan ABC (No paywall)
A small community in Bellmere, just north of Brisbane, is turning the traditional aged care model on its head, providing a sense of independence, engagement and normalcy to its 120 residents, many of whom live with cognitive impairment such as dementia.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-20/the-micro-town-helping-pe…
# Australia, Disability, Home, Older people.NSW floods could expose underinsurance. Here’s how to protect yourself
Matt Johnson The New Daily (No paywall)Another year, another ‘once-in-a-century’ natural disaster. Flooding on New South Wales’ mid-north coast has thrust non-insurance against climate change risks into the spotlight after the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) declared a catastrophe.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/your-budget/2021/03/22/underi…
# Australia, .Risk of 'abrupt stop' in housing market, economist says
Susan Edmunds (No paywall)From New Zealand ... New Government policies intended to shift the balance of the property market more in favour of first-home buyers risk bringing it to a “more abrupt stop” than intended, a leading economist says. A range of new measures were announced on Tuesday, including $3.8 billion for infrastructure, an extension of the bright-line test that means some investors pay tax on their gains when they sell properties, and the removal of interest deductibility. This last point will be important to many investors. ... ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner said '... In my view it’s well worth sacrificing a bit of economic activity at this point to head off house prices that are doing so much damage to our society'. (Stuff)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300259437/risk--of-abrupt-stop-…
# International, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.'The worst I've ever seen': The appalling and 'unliveable' council housing conditions some have endured during lockdown
Daniel Hewitt (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... It is impossible to put into words the appalling conditions we found people living in, in Croydon, south London. Not even the pictures you can see below do justice to the dangerous squalor residents, some of them young children, have been forced to endure for months. Before you even see the black mould and the damp inside the flats, you can smell it in the corridors. (ITV)
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-03-22/the-worst-ive-ever-seen-the-…
# Video International, Public and community housing, Repairs, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Mould.