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
Sydney’s plunging property prices leave potential sellers spooked
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Sydney’s fastest house price decline in decades has scared home sellers, who were less likely to list their properties for sale in October than the month before. A seasonal spring rush of properties for sale has failed to materialise and new listings fell 2.3 per cent last month from the previous month, SQM Research data shows.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/sydney-s-plunging-property-…
# NSW, Housing market.How long after missing a mortgage payment does a home get repossessed? A financial counsellor says it doesn't have to come to that
Dannielle Maguire ABC (No paywall)With the Reserve Bank of Australia warning of more interest rate rises in the future, there are fears overextended borrowers might default on their mortgage repayments. It's a frightening prospect but Lody Stewart, a financial counsellor who works with Financial Counselling Australia, says there are ways to get yourself out of trouble. But before we get into that, let's run through the three steps of a bank repossessing a home.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-07/what-happens-when-your-de…
# Australia, Home ownership, Mortgagee repossession.Victorian Liberals pledge stamp duty cut for first-home buyers, Labor promises veterans card
Yara Murray-Atfield and Richard Willingham ABC (No paywall)The Victorian opposition has said it would scrap stamp duty for first-home buyers who purchase property worth less than $1 million if it wins the state election. ... "We want to get more Victorians into home ownership, not into long-term renting, but into owning their own home," Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-06/victorian-election-libera…
# Australia, Home ownership, State Government, Tax.Australia has a problem with inflation, and that likely means more interest rate hikes to come
David Taylor ABC (No paywall)Why mortgage rates could climb considerably higher from here. [Read on] (ABC The Drum)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-05/more-interest-rate-hikes-…
# Australia, Housing market.Real estate market transitioning from 'seller to buyer' as Tasmania's property sales drop
Hayden Cornes ABC (No paywall)Interest rate increases are to blame for property sales falling by nearly 20 per cent over the past three months in Tasmania, a real estate body says.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-04/property-sales-fall-in-ta…
# Australia, Housing market.Cybersecurity breaches call for rental data collection overhaul
Ben Knight (No paywall)Now is the time for governments to review tenancy laws to better protect tenants. Recent data breaches have highlighted concerns about just how secure our personal information is in the hands of companies. But there’s one sector where a large-scale cybersecurity breach would be devastating – real estate. A data breach in the rental sector is a growing concern for renters, who regularly hand over large amounts of personal information when applying for rental housing. Transparency over how this information is used, shared and secured is often unclear. Dr Chris Martin, Senior Research Fellow from the UNSW City Futures Research Centre, says the ability of real estate agents and landlords to collect vast amounts of sensitive information is a significant concern. The tenancy law expert says now is the time for governments to regulate data collection in the rental sector.
https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/social-affairs/cybersecurity-b…
# Australia, Privacy and access, Rent, Landlords and agents.Rental price growth slows from unprecedented highs as tenants hit ‘affordability ceiling’
Caitlin Cassidy The Guardian (Paywall)Record rental prices are beginning to ease however the market is unlikely to swing in favour of tenants anytime soon, housing experts warn. National rents experienced the smallest monthly increase in growth this year according to CoreLogic’s latest quarterly rental review, up by just 0.6% in September. But it came amid an annual growth trend of 10%. ... Everybody’s Home CEO Kate Colvin said Australia was “definitely still in a rental crisis” however locations had hit an “affordability ceiling”. ... Policy and advocacy manager at the Tenants’ Union of NSW Jemima Mowbray said it was hard to say the current stabilisation in prices was developing into a drop in the market because it was occurring on the back of increased median rent. “The good news is it’s not increasing at the pace it was,” she said. “But we’ve had such significant rent increases with such tight rates … it’s going to take a long time before we see renters in a situation where people on low incomes aren’t struggling.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/03/rental-pr…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello backs better rental data protections
Tawar Razaghi The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Better protection of tenants’ information has been backed by NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello after industry groups and renters raised concerns about a potential Optus-style data breach. Tenants are routinely required to submit copious amounts of sensitive information to real estate agencies and third-party tenant databases when applying for rental properties. ... With very little oversight into why the amount of data is stored in the first place, where it is stored and the duration, Dominello said an entire rethink of data collection for any purpose, including real estate, was needed. “When you consider the extraordinary cost of cybercrime in the country, which extends to the tens of millions of dollars, it is clear that there are significant problems when it comes to sharing of personal information,” he said. “There definitely needs to be a rethink of what information we absolutely need to share, how long that information is shared for, and when that information should be destroyed. “It is clear that much of the architecture that we have in place now was built in the last century, in a world that did not envisage the digital age. “I would support a holistic review about data sharing. It makes sense that given how many people rent their homes that this would be an area of high impact and warrants particular focus.” Tenants’ Union NSW chief executive Leo Patterson said they would support a general inquiry into the real estate industry’s technology and data privacy practices because so many problems go unchecked. “Part of the issue has been things keep popping up that we’re not aware of until it is brought to our attention by tenants. The practices we’re concerned about we would even miss,” Patterson said. “A lot of people haven’t paid attention to it in the regulatory space. A lot of weird things are happening on the edges. In general, certainly looking at what are the responsibilities of real estate agencies but also the third-party platforms that are delivering services to agencies.”
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/nsw-customer-service-minist…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Privacy and access, Rent, Landlords and agents, State Government.