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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Forecasters predict Australia’s hottest property market in 2022
Sarah Webb Domain (No paywall)More jobs, more interstate migrants and the 10-year insurance policy of hosting the world’s biggest sporting event will send South East Queensland property prices to record heights next year, industry experts say, with the current housing boom tipped to burn into the early months of 2022.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/forecasters-predict-austral…
# Australia, Housing market.Glimmer of hope for first-home buyers in 2022
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)First-home buyers whose new year’s resolution was to get into the property market might have to think again, with experts forecasting another tough year for aspirational homeowners. But there are some signs of hope: more homes are expected to hit the market, giving buyers better choice and potentially less competition, possible interest rate rises that should put downward pressure on unprecedented price growth, and green shoots of wages growth in a tight jobs market.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/glimmer-of-hope-for-first-h…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.‘It’s going to annihilate our view’: War over boarding house
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It’s one of Sydney’s most sought-after buildings, in the heart of the “Paris end” of Macleay Street, Elizabeth Bay. But residents of the Pomeroy apartments are now living in fear that their gleaming harbour views are about to be walled up – literally. That’s because directly behind them on Billyard Avenue, the long-standing landowners are planning to erect a six-storey, 29-room boarding house that would block views from the Pomeroy up to at least the third floor. ... [Mr Pooley] wants to do something for the community by providing more low-cost - though tiny - housing. Tone Wheeler, the architect of the proposed boarding house, said the surrounding neighbours were mostly wealthy people and “they find it very hard to understand that John and Prue’s motivation for this is to provide some lower cost housing”. Not leaving anything to chance, the Pomeroy’s residents have appointed a sub-committee of the owners’ corporation to take up the fight, and hired a lawyer, architect, town planner and heritage consultant.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-s-going-to-annihilate-our…
# NSW, Affordable housing, Housing market, Planning and development.Australian property prices surged 22pc last year, its biggest jump since the 1980s
Samuel Yang ABC (No paywall)Record low interest rates have driven Australian housing prices up 22 per cent last year — its sharpest rise in three decades. The nation's median property price has risen for a 15th straight month. It comes after another 1 per cent gain in December, according to the latest figures from CoreLogic. But prices have been rising at a slower pace each month, as property became increasingly unaffordable for first-home buyers. Last month, Australia's median price rose by 1 per cent to $709,803.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-04/australia-house-prices-co…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Even in a hot market, L.A. won't allow rent hikes for most tenants until 2023
Liam Dillon (Paywall)As part of its COVID-19 rules, the city of Los Angeles is prohibiting rent increases for tenants in rent-controlled buildings. Elsewhere rents have gone up by double digits in recent months. (Los Angeles Times)
https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2022-01-03/even-i…
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Scottish councils to get extra £16m for ‘rapid rehousing’ of homeless people
James Wilmore Inside Housing (Paywall)Under the Scottish administration’s Rapid Rehousing Transitions Plans, local authorities have introduced five-year schemes to help people facing homelessness find permanent housing quicker. Announced today, the new £16m funding will see £8m awarded in 2022/23 and a further £8m in 2023/24. The package includes £6.5m for the Housing First pathfinder initiative, which helps people with multiple and complex needs. This brings the total spending on rapid rehousing to £53.5m, according to the government.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/scottish-councils-to-g…
# International, Homelessness, Local Government.How racism impacts homeless people
Kate Youde Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... During the first national lockdown last year, one charity found that some young homeless people in London were prevented from accessing support. “You need to be bedded down to then be picked up by an outreach team,” says Jo Bhandal, campaigns, policy and research lead at LGBTQ+ youth homelessness charity Akt. “We were finding disproportionately that some of the young Black men that we support were being moved on essentially [by] police, which was then preventing them from being picked up by StreetLink.” Ms Bhandal says this highlights some of the challenges people of colour, and particularly Black people, can face when experiencing homelessness. Black people are nine times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by the police in England and Wales.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/how-racism-impac…
# International, Homelessness, Race and ethnicity.SA Health defends decision to quarantine homeless Aboriginal people in tents on oval
Shari Hams ABC (No paywall)South Australia's health department has defended the decision to quarantine Aboriginal homeless close contacts in tents on a Port Augusta oval. Chinnery Park Oval was set up for the facility in a partnership between SA Health, SA Police and Aboriginal health service Pika Wiya.
A staff member at a sobering-up centre in Port Augusta tested positive to COVID-19 last week, sending about 35 people into isolation. All close contacts isolating at the site have tested negative thus far.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-05/homeless-covid-isolation-…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness, Race and ethnicity.