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
How we can drive up standards in the private rented sector
Richard Rowntree (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The days of rising damp and sub-standard boilers are numbered – standards in the private rented sector are improving and lenders can take some of the credit. But Richard Rowntree of Paragon Bank says there’s still more work to be done. (Mortgage Finance Gazette)
https://www.mortgagefinancegazette.com/market-commentary/drive-s…
# International, Rent, Repairs, Housing market, Mould.Wellington flat compared to 'dungeon from Parasite'
Ethan Te Ora (No paywall)From New Zealand ... “The landlord took us inside and it was really dim, no lights. It looked like an actual dungeon ... The place was messy. It looked like they hadn’t even cleaned ahead of the viewings.” The property was currently listed for $465 ... ”Ultimately, people have a choice as to where they want to live,” [Landlord Milan] Naran said. ”It’s up to them to make that choice. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to stay there.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/housing-affordability/1…
# International, Rent, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Sellers allow homebuyers to pay in Bitcoin but experts warn of 'highly volatile' currency
Sarah Cumming ABC (No paywall)Queensland's peak real estate body says vendors need to think carefully about accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for the sale of their homes. The owners of at least two Gold Coast properties currently listed for sale will allow buyers to pay with digital currencies, like Bitcoin. The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) said cryptocurrencies were approved for use in Australia.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-27/buying-property-with-bitc…
# Australia, Housing market.As property listings halve, real estate agents are also feeling the squeeze
Loretta Lohberger and Tamara Glumac ABC (No paywall)A falling number of houses on the market in Tasmania is encouraging real estate agents to "race to the bottom", or leave the industry entirely, some agents say.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-29/properties-scarce-in-tasm…
# Australia, Human rights, Landlords and agents.AFR Rich List 2021: Property players Harry Triguboff and Frank Lowy among Australia’s richest
Elzabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)The biggest property players on the Rich List have been revealed, with fortunes shifting as the nation emerges from last year’s pandemic recession. Three of the top 10 richest people in the country built their empires through property, as did 49 of the top 200 people on the Financial Review Rich List, released on Friday.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/afr-rich-list-2021-property-playe…
# Australia, Housing market.Nightingale rocks (in a shaky way) and discovers form follows finance
Tina Perinotto The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Nightingale rocked the development world when it got going, with its radical affordable/sustainable model of housing. Now it’s been rocked by one of its own and there’s legal storm clouds threatening.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/nightinga…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Housing market.The Tasmanian town of Kingston is booming, but at what cost?
Kate Ainsworth ABC (No paywall)Roy Maynard has called the southern Tasmanian town of Kingston home for nearly 30 years, but has been forced out due to skyrocketing rents. The Aboriginal elder was homeless for eight months after leaving the town last year, and with nowhere else to go, he moved in with his daughter and her family in the nearby town of Geeveston.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-30/kingston-tasmania-populat…
# Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.The Australian public purse is already pumping big money into housing – just not where it’s needed
Hal Pawson The Guardian (No paywall)The imbalance in public support of housing is not only socially unjust, it also hugely distorts our whole housing system. ousing once again looks set to form a major bone of contention in the coming general election. That much was clear from the ALP’s recent budget response. Labor had already backed the Coalition’s first homeowner initiatives. But opposition leader Anthony Albanese’s budget reply pledge to ramp up social and affordable housebuilding marked a clear point of difference from the government. This was not difficult to achieve. Despite ongoing increases in housing affordability stress over the past decade in many cities and regions, successive Liberal National governments have presided over a continuing dearth of non-market housebuilding. In his stock response to calls for post-Covid social housing stimulus, housing minister Michael Sukkar has time and again washed his hands of the issue by declaring it purely a state and territory responsibility. ... What is needed above all in Australia is unequivocal ownership of the housing affordability challenge by our national government as well as by states and territories. Only then could the country set a course towards a more balanced and equitable housing system to the benefit of all.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/24/the-public…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Federal Government, Home ownership, Housing market, Tax.