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
The plan to transform ‘overlooked’ Botany Road with offices, laneways
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydney’s inner south will be transformed under a City of Sydney plan to raise building heights along Botany Road, boosting the number of towers and opening the corridor to billions of dollars of commercial investment. Buildings would top 17 storeys as part of the scheme to encourage office, entertainment and retail spaces, and boost the supply of affordable housing, on 57 hectares stretching from Redfern station to north Alexandria.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-plan-to-transform-overlo…
# NSW, Affordable housing, Local Government, Planning and development.‘Virtually no protection’: Why Australian homes are so cold
Sophie Miura The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Australia might be a sunburned country, but in winter, the cold reality bites: Our homes are not built to withstand the chill. This realisation has come into focus as thousands of people have left their heated high-rise offices to work from home during the pandemic.
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/virtuall…
# Australia, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Home dreams shattered as Perth families gagged by builders’ silence culture
Marta Pascual Juanola The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)West Australian families who are unhappy with their home builder say they are being silenced with threatening legal letters and non-disparagement agreements, leaving them with little recourse to get out of their contract.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/home-dreams-sh…
# Australia, Home ownership.I don't mind being a renter, except for this one thing
Matilda Dixon-Smith SBS (No paywall)I’ve heard the jokes about lawyers, and used-car salesmen. I know what people think of taxidermists. But, seriously, what is it with real estate agents? (SBS Voices)
https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2018/02/22/…
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents.South Coast villages brace for development influx amid city exodus
Peter Hannan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Some of the state’s most idyllic coastal villages are bracing for a flood of housing development as Sydneysiders seeking to escape the pandemic push up prices and awaken long-dormant projects. Developers have their eyes on towns such as Dalmeny, Tuross Head and Manyana on the NSW South Coast, and councils due to face elections in December have come under pressure to open up more land for housing as properties become scarce for renters and buyers alike.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/south-coast-vill…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development, Regional NSW.Fit for a king: Prince Charles’ experimental city is proving critics wrong
Bevan Shields The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)After a three-hour drive through the English countryside, I arrive in the town of Poundbury and climb out of the car to examine my strange new surroundings. To the right stands the imposing Duchess of Cornwall Inn, which borrows its rich architectural detail from Palladio’s Convento della Carità in Venice. Next door, the neoclassical-style Strathmore House is bright yellow like some sort of St Petersburg palace and boasts fourteen giant Corinthian pilasters topped by a pediment bearing the Queen Mother’s coat of arms. In front of me the sprawling Royal Pavilion combines Greek Revival details with Roman arcaded architecture. These are not centuries-old buildings, though. They’re not even five years old. They are, in fact, a fascinating experiment in urban design championed by heir-to-the-throne and architecture critic-in-chief Prince Charles.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/fit-for-a-king-prince-charle…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.Thirty years of Joondalup, Perth's satellite city success story
Jessica Warriner ABC (No paywall)On the banks of Lake Joondalup, about 30 kilometres north of Perth's CBD, Joondalup's town centre was master-planned from the ground up. It's just passed 30 years since the city centre was officially opened in June 1991. So, how is the satellite city of the north holding up? The seeds for Joondalup as a major community hub were planted around 1955 – that's when the first proper plan for the Perth metropolitan area was drawn up.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-22/joondalup-perth-30-years-…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.Why WA is missing its chance to stop Perth’s urban sprawl
Hamish Hastie The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The McGowan government’s home building bonus “directly conflicted” with its own infill targets, an independent infrastructure advisory body says. Infrastructure WA’s draft State Infrastructure Strategy released on Wednesday made 88 recommendations to the government, including planning several major projects such as a third airport, the second phase of Metronet projects and the expansion of Perth’s Convention and Exhibition Centre. But the majority of those recommendations were not for bricks and mortar projects, but policy changes aimed at improving the delivery, maintenance and assessment of infrastructure until 2042.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/western-australia/why-wa-is-miss…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.