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
Fears of a debt disaster as property market runs hot and changes to safe lending laws loom
Nassim Khadem ABC (No paywall)The federal government is looking to wind back safe lending laws, saying there are other adequate protections for consumers. ... But Katherine Temple from the Consumer Action Law Centre ... said axing safe lending laws during a pandemic was risky and would fuel an already overheating housing market.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-13/fears-of-a-debt-disaster-…
# Hot topic Australia, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership.Super chair warns using retirement funds for housing is ‘destructive’
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The chairman of Australia’s biggest retirement fund has criticised Coalition backbenchers for opposing an increase to the superannuation guarantee. AustralianSuper chairman Don Russell said a faction of about a dozen Liberal and National MPs and senators fighting the superannuation guarantee rise from 9.5 per cent to 12 per cent was “puzzling” considering the Coalition had historically valued lighthanded government regulation and individual choice.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/super-chair-warns-using-…
# Australia, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Senate committee backs plan to roll back responsible lending rules, citing home-loan approval delays
Elizabeth Redman Domain (Paywall)Responsible-lending rules could soon be rolled back, after a government report warned home loan approvals were taking too long and were too invasive. A Senate committee argued the change would not undermine consumer protections, saying the principle of responsible lending was still embedded in other bank regulation. The findings are in stark contrast to calls from consumer advocates to keep the rules, amid worries the changes would allow borrowers to take out loans they could not afford, with banks facing no penalty if they contravened the existing laws on responsible lending. Experts have also warned the change would further push up soaring property prices.
https://www.domain.com.au/money-markets/senate-committee-backs-p…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Byron second only to Sydney for homelessness with countless women on the fringes of insecure housing
Bruce MacKenzie and Bronwyn Herbert ABC (No paywall)Former investment banker Kelly Reiffer has called the Byron Shire home for the past seven years, and while her two daughters were born there and they are heavily entwined in the community, finding a stable home has been a challenge like no other. ... She said the first step was convincing landlords of the merits of secure and stable tenants rather than a short-term cash-grab through holiday rentals.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-08/countless-women-on-the-fr…
# NSW, Homelessness, Regional NSW, Women.What Happens to Your Mental Health When You Can’t Pay Your Rent?
Jason Cherkis The New York Times (No paywall)From the United States ... research shows that there is a connection between people’s ability to pay rent each month and their mental health. As politicians debated increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, I thought about the deaths I was reviewing. There’s a moral argument that Democrats should be making, but are not. Along with increasing social mobility and addressing inequality, raising the minimum wage has the potential to lower the country’s suicide rate. The Covid-19 pandemic has raised concerns about a coming mental health crisis, and a wage hike should be discussed as not just good economic sense but also critical mental health policy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/10/opinion/minimum-wage-mental-h…
# Must read International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Work, employment.CARAVAN PARK OPERATION TO PAY $2.3M AFTER LOSING HIGH COURT APPEAL
(No paywall)Companies operating a NSW Tweed River area caravan park have lost an appeal in the High Court after being ordered to pay more than $2.3 million in compensation plus interest to consumers relating to the sale of waterfront villas as “permanent residences” despite the sites not having development consent for permanent accommodation. (Medianet)
https://www.medianet.com.au/releases/197708/#:~:text=Companies%2…
# Legal significance NSW, Land lease communities, Landlords and agents.Walking through spring
Graham Hoyland (No paywall)On the way we pass the village of North Bradbury, where in the sixteenth century squatters cottages were thrown up on common land. ... The squatters cottages had an unusual legal history; if they could be built in a day and have a fire lit and smoke coming out of the chimney by sunset they were legally allowed to stay. ... Some surrounding land was allowed to be enclosed with the cottage, and this was determined by how far the new owner could throw an axe or a shovel from the four corners of the dwelling. (p 49)
https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780008156138/walking-through-s…
# History International, Squatting.COVID Relief Bill
(No paywall)From the United States ... The emergency COVID-19 relief measure enacted in December 2020 included $25 billion in emergency rental assistance and an extension of the federal eviction moratorium through January 31. President Joe Biden on January 20 issued an executive order instructing the CDC to further extend the federal eviction moratorium until at least March 31. While the relief bill provided essential and desperately needed protections for renters, additional resources and protections are needed to address the health and housing needs of America’s lowest-income renters and people experiencing homelessness.
https://nlihc.org/coronavirus-and-housing-homelessness/covid-pac…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.