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
Houses of tomorrow: A more hopeful vision of domesticity, or a dystopian nightmare?
Richard Godwin The Guardian (No paywall)In the future, will we find a better way to live, or will our homes be taken over by surveillance and despotic appliances? ... Are we inexorably sliding into a world of surveillance and atomisation, climate crisis and housing crisis, drowning alone as our meta headsets suck the very data from our souls? Maybe a bit of both ...
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/nov/14/houses-of-t…
# International, Home.Housing is expensive now, imagine a market with more migrants. Economists see rent, house price lift in 2023
Nassim Khadem ABC (No paywall)When Australia opens its borders to migrants, already skyrocketing house prices could rise further. While immigration is not the only factor influencing house prices, it adds to the already strong demand for housing. Economists say about one extra home is required for every three migrants.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-17/migration-house-prices-re…
# Australia, Housing market.Plans released for $100 million apartment, retail and accommodation development at Hobart's Macquarie Point
Laura Beavis and Loretta Lohberger ABC (No paywall)A planning expert is warning Tasmania must learn from the "complete disaster" of Melbourne's Docklands precinct as it redevelops Macquarie Point on Hobart's waterfront. Also, view the video at: [https://www.abc.net.au/radio/hobart/programs/drive/the-escarpment/13635012]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-16/macquarie-point-apartment…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.Rents up, listings down as inner-city suburbs continue COVID-19 recovery
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Australia’s capital city unit rents are continuing to recover, new data shows, thanks – in part – to new locally-based tenants entering the market for the first time attracted by cheaper rents. Property managers say the type of tenant is changing in inner Melbourne and Sydney after the two cities, whose apartment rental markets have traditionally relied heavily on international students and overseas professionals, took the brunt of the pandemic rental falls. These new tenants, including professionals returning to the office and looking to rent an affordable inner-city pad rather than commute more than 10 hours a week from outer suburbs or regional areas, have helped see a drop in the number of available rentals.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/rents-up-and-the-number-of-listin…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Was relocating a good move? As the city reopens, I’m feeling a bit of FOMO
Kate Halfpenny The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)There are tons of people like us who ran for the hills during COVID. By August, over 22,000 of us decamped from Melbourne to rural Victoria. We were set on a cruisier life and bigger houses for less money, strangely pricked – me anyway – by the passage of time. Now, with Melbourne reopening, I’m feeling the odd prick of FOMO. I wonder how everyone else is going. Did we make a giant mistake? Is the countryside all it’s cracked up to be or is it now awash with townies suffering relocation remorse?
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/was-relo…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home, Housing market.Time is running out for Beijing to fix China’s property crisis
Shuli Ren The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)To avoid hurting the broader economy, China is considering easing rules to let its distressed real estate developers sell off assets to avoid defaults. ... Desperate times demand desperate measures. Beijing has vowed not to bail out Evergrande, already the world’s most indebted developer. But market conditions have worsened since it made that promise in mid-October. Even investment-grade builders like Country Garden have seen its bonds tumble, a sign that contagion risk is real. China has to find a workable solution to fix the developer debt crisis. Time is running out. Also, check out the story at: [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-15/china-home-market-slump-deepens-as-prices-fall-for-second-month]
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/time-is-running-out-…
# International, Housing market.You don’t have to hit everything with a hammer’: APRA boss weighs housing risks
Elizabeth Knight The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Last week the financial regulator warned banks it might play a part in cooling the sizzling Australian home lending market. On Monday its chairman Wayne Byres appeared to tone down the risk the regulator would further stick its regulatory oar into mortgage lending.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/you-don-t-ha…
# Australia, Housing market.Prime land in Sydney suburb of Haberfield expected to go under hammer after 18-year delay
Tony Ibrahim ABC (No paywall)A large parcel of land in a sought-after Sydney suburb is scheduled to go on sale after being stuck in a bureaucratic logjam for nearly two decades. The Department of Defence will put its old army base in Haberfield on sale by early next year, freeing up 19,000 square metres just 7 kilometres west of the CBD. Work is underway to divide the land at 140A Hawthorne Parade into 21 lots that can be developed into residential homes, ranging in size from 500 to 1,048 square metres. Real estate agents value it between $40 million to $60 million.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-16/former-haberfield-army-ba…
# NSW, Housing market.