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
Going viral: COVID-19, social housing and social media
Travis Gilbert (No paywall)When a novel coronavirus, with no known effective treatment or vaccination, arrived in Canberra in 2020, the health advice was simple. Stay home, stop the spread, save lives. A week later, the Prime Minister declared there would be a moratorium on evictions from private and social rental homes for all households unable to make rent due to loss of income from the economic fallout of COVID-19. With that, the argument many housing advocates, particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had been making for years, was confirmed true. An affordable, safe and secure home that is not crowded and is of sufficient amenity to enable constant modulation of inside temperature is a critical social determinant of good health. (RiotAct!)
https://the-riotact.com/going-viral-covid-19-social-housing-and-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Homelessness.Sydney house values climb $850 a day amid fears of living standard hit
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The average new mortgage to buy an established house in NSW has soared by more than $200,000 in two years amid a nationwide glut of home lending, raising fears our obsession with pumping money into real estate may hurt Australia’s long-term living standards. You will find a similar story for Melbourne at: [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/melbourne-houses-climb-457-a-day-amid-fears-of-living-standard-hit-20210909-p58q6f.html]
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/sydney-house-values-clim…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.More financial support on offer for struggling tenants, landlords
Kayla Osbourne (No paywall)Tenants and landlords affected by ongoing stay-at-home orders will now have access to additional financial support. The NSW Government's Residential Tenancy Support Package has been increased to up to $4500 per tenancy, with the eviction moratorium also extended until November 11, 2021. ... Tenants' Union's policy and advocacy coordinator Jemima Mowbray told the Leader that many renters were experiencing high levels of stress as COVID restrictions continued. "We know that renters are more likely to have precarious or casual jobs and it has now been four or five weeks without a solid stream of income," she said. "What we have seen though is a lot of people have increased their debt as they dug into savings during the lockdown last year. "They may have paid rent but built up credit card debt or bill debt just to make it through last year so they don't have those same resources to draw on this time." (St George & Sutherland Shire Leader)
https://www.theleader.com.au/story/7420071/more-financial-suppor…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.Council compensates homeless man for housing delay
BBC (No paywall)A watchdog ordered a council to pay a homeless man compensation for taking too long to find him emergency accommodation. An investigation found Bristol City Council knew he was at risk of self harm yet took five weeks to find him a place. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report said the delay was "excessive". The council has apologised and paid the man £250 for the distress he suffered.
# International, Homelessness, Local Government.Pay down the mortgage faster or invest? Here’s my strategy…
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)I’m often asked why I choose to only make the minimum repayments on my mortgage. It’s an excellent question, so let me explain my thinking.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/pay-down-the-mortgage-fas…
# Australia, Home ownership.Home loan crackdown should be a question of when, not if
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Amid all the grim economic news, there is one part of the economy that has seemed almost bulletproof: housing. It may be good news for homeowners that Sydney house prices are up a massive 20.9 per cent in the last year, while Melbourne prices are up 13.1 per cent, even if monthly growth is slowing. But for the economy it’s not so simple. ... Figures from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) show that in the last few quarters, new lending to highly-indebted borrowers has been on the rise. APRA said the share of new loans where the customer was borrowing more than six times their income jumped from 19.1 per cent to 21.9 per cent in the June quarter, the highest level since it started collecting this data in 2019. A year ago, the share of new lending in this category was only 16 per cent.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/home-loan-cu…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.‘Pretty stretched’: Westpac boss says housing affordability is getting worse
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Westpac chief executive Peter King has underlined a deterioration in housing affordability, saying regulators should wait for lockdowns to end before assessing whether there was a need for lending curbs to be introduced.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/pretty-stret…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Tax on landlords could help pay for social care, says Keir Starmer
BBC (No paywall)Money to pay for social care could have been raised through taxing landlords, Sir Keir Starmer was expected to tell a conference. It comes after Boris Johnson announced plans to raise National Insurance tax on workers and employers in order to pay for the NHS backlog and social care. Sir Keir was to describe the rise as "unfair" and "poorly thought through". But the Labour leader has come under pressure in recent days to detail his own plan to fund social care.
# International, Landlords and agents, Welfare.