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
These are the biggest housing bubbles in the world, on Bloomberg research
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)House prices are rising in Australia and around the world, but is it a bubble? The biggest bubbles are in the housing markets of New Zealand, Canada and Sweden, but Australia takes 15th place in new global rankings by Bloomberg Economics. And, the frothiest real estate markets are ringing alarm bells not heard since before the global financial crisis, the report warns.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/these-are-the-biggest-housing-bub…
# International, Housing market.Sydney first-home buyers need seven years and one month to save for a house
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Sydney’s pandemic property boom has pushed the time it takes first-home buyers to enter the market to a record seven years and one month, according to new research. It now takes six months longer than it did last year for a couple to save a 20 per cent deposit on an entry-priced house of $770,000, Domain’s First-Home Buyer Report, released Monday, found.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/first-home-buyer-report-1064381/?…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Government pledges $1.3m to restore Gough Whitlam’s home in Sydney’s west
The Guardian (No paywall)The federal government will put up $1.3m to buy and restore the former prime minister Gough Whitlam’s family home in Sydney’s west.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/19/governmen…
# NSW, Heritage listings.Sirius transformation: $435m of luxury apartments sold in former social housing block
Elias Visontay (No paywall)Sydney’s Sirius building has continued its transformation from historic social housing block to luxury apartment complex with $435m worth of apartments in the block sold over the weekend. Penthouses with infinity pools and an average value of more than $100,000 per square metre were among the sales, including one built as a pod on top of the building which sold for $35m, the Australian reported.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/21/are-you-s…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Housing market.Social housing tenant ordered to pay more than £155,000 after illegally subletting home
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... A woman who unlawfully let a housing association-owned home has been ordered to pay more than £155,000 in one of the largest cases of its kind.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/social-housing-tenant-order…
# International, Public and community housing, Sub-letting.Stockland explores affordable land lease housing as sector booms
Carolyn Cummins The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Stockland plans to deliver more than 3000 lots in its burgeoning land lease division, which offers affordable manufactured homes for the retirement sector. In his first few weeks as the new chief executive, Tarun Gupta has identified the sector that he has deemed “horizontal residential for rent” (as opposed to the build-to-rent sector) as the growth engine within its communities operations. Under the scheme, a resident buys the house but rents the land on which it sits from Stockland, creating a more affordable entry to the booming market.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/stockland-explores-aff…
# Australia, Land lease communities, Affordable housing, Housing market, Older people.Homeowners at all-time comfort level as renters struggle, WA housing affordability report finds
ABC (No paywall)Perceptions of housing affordability have improved in Western Australia but there are very different stories being told by homeowners and renters as the COVID-19 pandemic alters the property landscape. The Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) has found owner-occupiers are more comfortable than they have been in years. But many renters, particularly single parents, are struggling to make ends meet. About 4,000 households in WA, New South Wales and Queensland were surveyed for a report released today titled Housing Affordability in WA: a tale of two tenures.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-24/wa-homeowners-more-comfor…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Women.Second homes are a gross injustice, yet the UK government encourages them
George Monbiot The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... How big would our housing crisis be if it were not for second homes? It’s a question almost no one in public life wants to ask, let alone answer. But it becomes more urgent every day. By a second home, I don’t mean one continuously rented to another household. I mean a property used either as a personal holiday home or as a place to stay while working away from your main home: in other words, a luxury that deprives other people of a necessity.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/23/second-hom…
# International, Homelessness, Housing market, Tax.