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
Private rents fall in UK's biggest cities by up to 12% amid Covid crisis
Rupert Jones The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Private rents in some of the UK’s biggest city centres have fallen by up to 12% in a year but have risen sharply in parts of northern England as some tenants swapped an urban life for the suburbs, smaller towns and villages.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jan/27/private-rents-fall…
# International, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.New Productivity Commission data prompts calls for more housing investment
Luke Michael Pro bono Australia (No paywall)Homelessness groups warn that Australia’s housing system remains in urgent need of repair. More than half of low-income private renters are spending unsustainable amounts on rent, despite the temporary boost to income support reducing the number of households in rental stress by more than 150,000.
New data from the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services 2021 shows that 50.2 per cent of low-income households privately renting face rental stress – defined as paying more than 30 per cent of their income towards rent. Read on ...
https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2021/01/new-productivity-co…
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Affordable housing, Homelessness, Housing market.Report shows Sydney unit values shrinking as house prices reach record high
Jamie McKinnon ABC (No paywall)House prices in Sydney reached a record high at the end of 2020, but the harbour city's units have lost the most value of all capital cities, according to a new report.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-28/nsw-sydney-property-sees-…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Regional NSW.Sydney house prices reach record high, outstrip pre-pandemic levels
Kate Burke Domain (Paywall)Sydney house prices have reached a record high and outstripped pre-COVID-19 prices by nearly $50,000, with median prices jumping by six figure sums across in-demand pockets, new data shows. Sydney’s median house price is now a whopping $1,211,488 after surging by 4.8 per cent during the December quarter alone, the latest Domain House Price Report, released on Thursday, revealed. ... Apartment prices have also stopped falling, with the median nudging 0.2 per cent higher to $729,840 – still $20,000 short of the median recorded in the pre-pandemic March quarter.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-house-price-report-1020801/
# NSW, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.It’s our turn to borrow now as recovery plan shifts
Alan Kohler The New Daily (No paywall)The economic recovery plan has shifted from the government borrowing money and handing it to people and businesses, to the government offering to help with the deposit on a new house. In other words, the government is putting the brakes on its own borrowing by getting households to borrow instead.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/01/28/alan-kohl…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market.When Covid is over, what buildings do we actually want to see in Britain's cities?
Owen Hatherly The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... The pandemic has underlined how broken the UK’s model for urban development is. It’s time to build something new. ... The tallest edifices in any city will tell you who and what actually rules. Here in Britain, it’s financial institutions and property speculation. It is hard to see now amid the depression and anger, but the pandemic did briefly show cities acting on the basis of general human need: rough sleepers being housed, mutual aid groups being set up, evictions being suspended. Yet the possibility of any long-term change is rapidly being lost. Read on ...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/25/covid-buil…
# Hot topic International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Planning and development.After a mining exodus, this capital city is ready for a remarkable turnaround
Matt Johnson The New Daily (No paywall)Perth’s property market is on the cusp of another boom after years stuck in the doldrums, as expats and young buyers flood auctions across the city.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/01/26/perth-hou…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.COVID is keeping us in our homes, but what makes working there a success or failure?
Abbas Shieh and Robert Freestone The Conversation (No paywall)The industrial revolution transformed cities, resulting in places of residence and work becoming more distant than ever before. This spatial segregation is still largely embedded in the design of our cities today. But the COVID-19 pandemic might have brought our cities to a similarly dramatic turning point. Working from home has received a far-reaching fillip.
https://theconversation.com/covid-is-keeping-us-in-our-homes-but…
# Hot topic Australia, Planning and development.