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
What happens when all the rent comes due?
Andrew Khouri (Paywall)Millions of Americans, especially low-income tenants, are accumulating debt amid the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening to create a downward financial spiral. (Los Angles Times)
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-02-02/rent-debt-worr…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19.Glebe public housing another luxury takeover?
Denis Doherty (No paywall)GLEBE: On November 12, the residents of the 110 units in the public housing complex between Franklyn and Bay Streets in Glebe found letters in their mailboxes saying their homes would be redeveloped – meaning bulldozed and they would be relocated. Read on ... (South Sydney Herald)
https://southsydneyherald.com.au/glebe-public-housing-another-lu…
# Hot topic NSW, Eviction, Public and community housing, Housing market.Coronavirus stimulus grants lead to record building approvals but industry shortages emerging
Ellen Coulter ABC (No paywall)Elly Hope was not planning for her first home to be a new build, but when the opportunity arose, she grasped it. Ms Hope bought some land at Howrah Gardens, on Hobart's eastern shore, early last year. "It all happened quite quickly because I wasn't looking for land at the time," she said. Read on ...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-08/covid-19-stimulus-grants-…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Home ownership.Support for stamp duty reforms and shift away from coal, Sydney survey finds
Pallavi Singhai The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Success in handling the COVID-19 crisis has increased optimism across Sydney for the year ahead and may have primed the state for major reforms, including changes to stamp duty and a transition away from coal.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/support-for-stamp-duty-refor…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Tax.Sydneysiders flee for the bush, led by students and workers
Shane Wright and Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydneysiders have been fleeing for regional parts of NSW, Queensland and even Canberra, using the coronavirus pandemic to look for work and affordable housing outside the nation’s most expensive city. During the September quarter a net 7782 people left the Greater Sydney region, three in five of them moving to a regional part of NSW, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows. ... [But] University of NSW City Futures Research Centre director Bill Randolph said the number of people leaving Sydney and Melbourne was not significant for cities with populations of about 5 million people, and there were limitations on regional areas’ ability to cater to huge inflows of new residents.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/sydneysiders-flee-for-th…
# NSW, Housing market, Regional NSW.A new action plan for LGBTQ housing
Martin Hilditch Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Research has suggested that the housing concerns of many LGBTQ people are being neglected. Inside Housing met with tenants, academics, senior council and housing association figures and HouseProud – the UK-wide network for LGBTQ housing professionals – to draw up a potential action plan.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/a-new-action-plan-for-lg…
# International, Public and community housing, Human rights, LGBTIQ+.The cladding scandal reveals how Britain treats its poorest people
Owen Jones The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Residents repeatedly warned that [Grenfell Tower], which was covered in cheap, flammable cladding, was unsafe. Those residents were not only disproportionately working class, but also Black and brown; many hailed hailed from other countries. If they had been wealthy, white penthouse-dwellers, their pleas for help might not have been ignored until the moment their homes were ablaze. Even after the deadliest structural fire on British soil in three decades, solemn promises to rehouse survivors went unmet. Time and again, it seems politically permissible to ignore society’s most disfranchised people. Read on ... Also, check out The Guardian's Editorial at: [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/02/the-guardian-view-on-the-cladding-scandal-rip-off-panels-not-people]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/02/cladding-s…
# Hot topic International, Public and community housing, Housing market.Housing price rise isn’t unsustainable: RBA’s Lowe
Colin Brinsden The New Daily (No paywall)Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe is not concerned that a possible housing price bubble is being created against the backdrop of extremely low interest rates and government support measures.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/02/03/housing-p…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market.