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
‘Real thuggery’: Cornwall boats vandalised amid ‘incomer’ tensions
Steven Morris The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The spot could hardly be more idyllic. A Cornish creek fringed by apple trees where boats bob at high tide and dogs and children frolic in the mud at low. But there is trouble in the parish of Feock after a string of acts of vandalism aimed at those bobbing boats led to a wave of anger, fear and suspicion. Some of the victims blame second-home owners and “incomers”... especially given the exit from cities that the Covid crisis has caused, making homes unaffordable for most locally born people.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/03/real-thuggery-co…
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing market.Friendship formed over new designs for homes
Vanessa Mills ABC (No paywall)The importance of family, and multi-generations living under one roof, is just one of the uniting factors behind a new way of designing and building homes. Studio Kinship is an organisation founded by Perth based architect Lisa Anne Halton and Walmajarri artist Clifton Bieundurry. Lisa Anne grew up in Ireland and Clifton in Kimberley Aboriginal communities, and they've formed a strong friendship. The pair has designed, and plan to build, homes that allow Aboriginal people to adhere to strict kinship rules and traditions. (ABC Kimberley Breakfast)
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/kimberley/programs/breakfast/kinshi…
# Video Australia, Aboriginal renters, Families, Housing market.COVID and the need for better standards in high-rise living
AHURI Brief AHURI (No paywall)Although issues with the design and quality of living spaces in high density, high rise residential apartment buildings existed pre-COVID, the pandemic response restrictions that forced people to stay and work at home have focussed community concern on the problems of poor design and operation in some of these buildings. AHURI research in 2020 during the pandemic identified that households in apartments (particular people in smaller apartments) experienced limitations in their living environment during their extended lockdown ...
https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/ahuri-briefs/covid-and-the-nee…
# Research alert Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards, Planning and development.Sydney and Melbourne property prices slow after record-breaking boom
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Buying a house in Sydney and Melbourne is now tens of thousands of dollars more expensive than it was just a month ago but there are signs the strongest property boom in decades is slowing.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/sydney-and-melbourne-pro…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax.‘No one knew we were homeless’: relief funds hope to reach students missing from virtual classrooms
Linda Jaconson The Guardian (No paywall)From the United States ... Portia and her two boys were living at the St Ambrose Family Shelter in Dorchester, Massachusetts, located in an old Catholic church, when the pandemic hit. ... Her story is a common one among families that have gone without stable living arrangements over the past year. With students learning remotely – and sometimes leaving their cameras off during Zoom sessions – teachers and other school staff have missed many of the clues that students lack permanent housing. Under the $1.9tn economic stimulus bill passed in March, the federal government has dedicated $800m to support homeless students, a commitment that advocates say will go a long way to finding those students and addressing their needs.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/apr/30/us-homeless-st…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Homelessness.Property price growth outstrips rents, especially for inner-city apartments, data shows
Elizabeth Redman Domain (No paywall)Property price growth is outstripping rent growth in Australia’s largest cities as the housing market booms, with the gap most pronounced in the weakened inner-city apartment markets.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/property-price-growth-outstrips-r…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.Clearing land for housing negates benefits of tree-planting push, experts warn
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)The breakneck pace of new housing development is stymieing a push to plant more trees to counteract the urban heat-island effect, experts warn. Governments have been pushing tree-planting as a solution to high temperatures in neighbourhoods where there is a lot of new building. But more homes are being built than the number of trees planted in major cities, undoing the new trees’ benefits, according to Dr Tony Matthews, an urban and environmental planner ...
https://www.domain.com.au/news/clearing-land-for-housing-negates…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.The House Price Pass The Parcel Blame Game
Martin North (No paywall)More Federal and State Government blame-shifting as they try to avoid the real question of who is really responsible for the ultra-high home prices in Australia. (Digital Finance Analytics)
https://digitalfinanceanalytics.com/blog/the-house-price-pass-th…
# Video Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, Planning and development, Tax.