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
Patrick’s apartment block has defects. He has nightmares of being buried beneath rubble
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)Every time IT manager Patrick Quintal leaves work to travel home, he feels sick with dread that his apartment building may no longer be standing. Each night when he goes to sleep, he dreams about waking up buried beneath rubble.
One of his neighbours, Michael Jones, has worries about the safety of his wife and two small children almost constantly on his mind amid fears that their 10-storey development in south-west Sydney could prove the next disastrous Mascot Towers.
“It could potentially be on the same level as Mascot Towers,” said Quintal, 29, comparing their troubled complex, Vicinity at Canterbury, to the sinking building that massive structural defects have rendered unliveable since 2019. “The number that’s been thrown around to repair our building is around $50 million.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/patrick-s-apartment-block-h…
# Hot topic NSW, Home ownership, Planning and development, State Government.Why is it so hard for Local Aboriginal Land Councils to develop land when the public needs are huge?
Naama Blatman The Conversation (No paywall)Some of the largest landowners across New South Wales are Local Aboriginal Land Councils. Given the acute needs for housing and infrastructure, it’s time the state government enabled these land councils to play a greater role in development.
According to the Greater Cities Commission’s outgoing chief commissioner, Geoff Roberts, Local Aboriginal Land Councils (LALC) are the largest landowners in three of the region’s six cities from Newcastle in the north to Wollongong in the south.
Roberts told me the commission’s strategic plans simply cannot be carried out without embedding in them Aboriginal values and perspectives. “We cannot move forward, without going back.” And by back, he meant returning to where it all began with European invasion.
https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-so-hard-for-local-aborigin…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing affordability, Planning and development, State Government.A Sydney council ‘delivered’ 23 affordable homes in 14 years but none are occupied
Michael Koziol and Michael McGowan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The failure of the state’s affordable housing policies has been laid bare after a Sydney council revealed it has “delivered” just 23 affordable rentals in 14 years, and none are actually built or occupied yet.
Documents tabled by Woollahra Council in the city’s eastern suburbs confirmed no occupation certificates have been issued for the two dozen affordable dwellings it has approved since 2009.
The report canvassed affordable dwellings approved under state government affordable rental housing policies, which give developers extra height and floor space for affordable homes, and voluntary planning agreements between developers and the council.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/a-sydney-council-delivered-2…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing affordability, Planning and development, State Government.Batemans Bay housing advocate nominated for NAIDOC award says 'need keeps multiplying'
Vanessa Milton ABC (No paywall)When Tom Slockee was growing up, his family lived in a hut made from hessian bags and a dirt floor.
"They were shacks, if you like, but they were our homes, in the bush." Mr Slockee said.
His mother was a Butchulla woman and his father a South Sea Islander, the son of a slave taken by Australian authorities from Vanuatu. They lived in a tight-knit Aboriginal and Islander community on Bundjalung country on the NSW north coast.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-01/batemans-bay-aboriginal-h…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Aboriginal renters, Housing affordability, Planning and development.‘It’s choking us’: how interest rates are forcing Australians to sell their homes
Mostafa Rachwani The Guardian (No paywall)Andre Lattouf bought his first home in the middle of last year but after facing eight interest rate rises he is already looking to sell. “It’s choking us,” the father of three says. “It’s frustrating and sad. We spent so much time renovating this place and putting so much into it, but my mortgage repayments have almost doubled and it’s becoming a joke.”
On Tuesday the Reserve Bank of Australia paused its interest rate hikes for only the second time this year, leaving the cash rate at 4.1% – the highest in 11 years.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jul/04/its-choki…
# Hot topic NSW, Homelessness, Housing affordability, Housing market.‘Scarce’ supply continues to drive up Sydney rents as median hits $620 per week
Fiona Killman news.com.au (No paywall)Sydney renters have been dealt another blow, with units across the city recording the biggest annual rent increases of any market in Australia.
Rental pain across the Harbour City continues to grow as scarce supply drives up competition, resulting in rent increases.
The latest PropTrack Market Insight Report has revealed that median advertised rents in Sydney rose 3.3 per cent to $620 per week over April to June – $100 more than the national median. This is up 13.8 per cent compared to the June quarter of 2022.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/sydney-nsw/scarce-su…
# Hot topic, Research alert NSW, Rent, Housing affordability, Sydney.Minns’ housing plan is fantastic news, but only for property developers
Cathy Sherry The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The NSW government’s plans to tackle Sydney’s housing crisis will have property developers popping their bottles of Moet.
Light on detail, the proposal promises fast-track approval and a height bonus of 30 per cent for developments that include 15 per cent affordable housing, which is defined as housing for people whose “income isn’t high enough to pay rent in the area where they live or work”.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/minns-housing-plan-is-fantas…
# Hot topic NSW, Housing market, Planning and development, State Government.‘You should not be allowed to build a Lego house’: Buyer furious over Sydney property development
Kate McClymont The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)“Frankly, you should not be allowed to build a Lego house given the manner in which you have conducted yourselves,” an angry purchaser wrote recently to property developers Fayad Fayad and his brother Remon.
But like all the other emails solicitor Claudine Watson-Kyme has sent to the pair, she has never received a reply.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/you-should-not-be-allowed-to…
# Hot topic NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, Planning and development.