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
Loosening the mortgage belt: household interest payments at a 35-year low
Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The share of household income being used to pay interest on debt has fallen to the lowest level in 35 years, freeing up tens of billions of dollars a year to be spent in other ways.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/loosening-the-mortga…
# Australia, Housing market.If Labor is ‘on your side’, it shouldn’t dump its plan to limit negative gearing
Joel Dignam The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Last week, my housemates and I got a notice terminating our lease because the owner wants to sell. Our share house has been my home for just over 12 months; another housemate has lived here for seven years. But we’re going to lose our home because to somebody else, it’s just an asset. ... With an eviction looming, I’ve begun looking for a new place to live. Wherever I end up, that property might be a barrister’s plan to have a comfortable retirement, a surgeon’s strategy to pay less tax, or a stockbroker’s passive income stream. But whatever it might mean to the owner and their accountant, it will be my home.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/if-labor-is-on-your-side-it-shou…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Housing market, Tax.Housing justice for older people in NSW – Pre-Budget Submission 2021-22
(No paywall)The Ageing on the Edge New South Wales Forum is calling on the NSW Government to deliver 5,000 additional social housing dwellings, improve access of older people to appropriate social and affordable housing, establish a state-wide housing information and support service for older people, increase security of tenure for renters, extend the eviction moratorium during the COVID-19 pandemic and expand rent support to impacted tenants. (haag)
https://www.oldertenants.org.au/publications/housing-justice-for…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Older people, Welfare.‘Likely a Death Sentence’: Officials Fear Cold Weather Is Greater Risk for Homeless Than Virus
John Eligon The New York Times (No paywall)For weeks after he opened a daytime shelter for the homeless, Jae Bennett was fairly rigid about the building’s 37-person capacity. The last thing he wanted was for a lapse in social distancing to cause the deadly coronavirus to spread among a population in which many people were in frail health. But then temperatures in Kansas City, Mo., plunged into the single digits a little more than a week ago and stayed there, the coldest arctic blast of the season. And Mr. Bennett looked into the eyes of people waiting outside because the squat, brown building was full. “I said, ‘Screw it, just come in,’”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/14/us/coronavirus-homeless-cold-…
# Must read International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.450,000 families ‘behind on rent because of Covid’
BBC (No paywall)Almost half a million UK families are thought to have fallen behind on rent, as a result of the coronavirus crisis, according to the Resolution Foundation. It said more than 750,000 had been behind on housing costs last month. That is 450,000 more than January 2020. "Despite widespread calls for forbearance in the face of the Covid-19 shock, just 3% of private renting families have been able to negotiate a lower rent over the last 10 months," the think tank said in a report.
# International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Port Stephens homelessness rate sparks fear of tent city
Liz Farquhar ABC (No paywall)A New South Wales coastal town has run out of options when it comes to finding a roof for its most vulnerable residents, a homelessness service says.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-16/homelessness-rates-spike-…
# NSW, Homelessness, Housing market, Regional NSW.It’s madness, but here’s a way to stop home prices rising so fast
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)And what do Australians generally do when credit gets cheaper? Do we start our own businesses? No, silly! We invest in property! Why? Because the tax system explicitly rewards us for doing so.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/it-s-madness-but-her…
# Hot topic Australia, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market, Tax.Has COVID really caused an exodus from our cities? In fact, moving to the regions is nothing new
Amanda Davies The Conversation (No paywall)Internal migration resulted in a net loss of 11,200 people from Australia’s capital cities in the September quarter of 2020, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data released this month. At the same time, some regional areas experienced significant growth in house prices as demand for properties increased. So this has raised the questions: are we starting to see an exodus from our cities, and is this related to the COVID-19 pandemic?
https://theconversation.com/has-covid-really-caused-an-exodus-fr…
# Hot topic Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Regional NSW.