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
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/brave-renewal-world-social-housing-nsw
Zuzia Buszewicz Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)The July budget delivered by the NSW government boasts the Building Homes for NSW program as “the largest ever investment by a NSW Government in public housing in the state’s history”. After a decade of practices involving selling off publicly owned properties to finance maintenance of the remaining stock, this significant increase in investment and shift in how the government invests signals a brave new approach to the renewal of social housing in NSW. The vision of genuine upgrades to 33,000 homes across the state prompts me to consider how the government could best use this opportunity to deliver not only better homes but also better tenant participation policies.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/brave-renewal-world-social-housi…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media NSW, Public and community housing.Renters complain about the eye-watering rent across Sydney
7 News (No paywall)Sydney's rental squeeze appears to be tightening with some of the steepest price hikes in the South West. But right across the city, renters are complaining about the eyes watering money they're forking out for a roof overhead.
# Hot topic, TUNSW in the media, Video NSW, Rent.‘People losing their homes’: New South Wales’ worst rental suburbs revealed
Blair Jackson news.com.au (No paywall)Tweed Heads South is holding the mantle as the state’s worst suburb for renters by a cash-strapped mile. Average rents in the Northern Rivers suburb have increased 11 per cent in the past year, and rent now eats up 69 per cent of the median income in the area. The northside of Greenacre takes second spot in the state rankings of the latest Rental Pain Index, compiled by leading property data analyst Kent Lardner. Mr Lardner notes despite rents coming down in some areas, decreases are not a reliable indicator of easing pressure.
https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/people-losing-thei…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.Supplying the Australian dream: Why apartment builders are having to think bigger
Annalise Bolt 9 News (No paywall)The great Australian dream looks a little different these days, with many of the next generation growing up in apartments. But because of supply problems, finding a unit for parents, kids, and a pet can prove difficult prompting new rules to build bigger. Twin toddlers Sarah and Hannah love to roam free outdoors, but instead of playing in a backyard, they explore local parks close to their apartment block in the inner Sydney suburb of Zetland.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/family-sized-units-scarce-for-…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.New framework to measure social impact of NSW mixed-tenure housing project
Architecture AU (No paywall)Following the appointment of a design team and community consultation earlier this year, Sydney’s Redfern Place will form a case study for quantifiable research into the benefits of social and affordable housing in Australia. Transforming a vacant inner-city site, Redfern Place will deliver 350 dwellings, a new community facility and new head office for community housing provider and precinct developer, Bridge Housing. Within the mix of social and affordable housing, ten to fifteen percent of homes allocated by Bridge Housing will be dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tenants.
https://architectureau.com/articles/new-framework-to-measure-soc…
# Hot topic NSW, Aboriginal renters, Public and community housing, Rent.Five graphs show how housing insecurity is hammering Sydney families
Max Maddison The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Worsening housing insecurity has seen more than one in five disadvantaged people surveyed turfed out of their rental properties through termination or non-renewal of their leases, pushing many living on the brink into the houses of friends and family, a damning new report has revealed. Titled Impossible Choices: Decisions NSW Communities Shouldn’t Have To Make, the annual NSW Council of Social Services (NCOSS) report on cost-of-living pressures demonstrates how cascading year-on-year stress of the dual squeeze of cash rate rises and stubborn inflationary pressures has compounded financial hardship.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/five-graphs-show-how…
# Hot topic NSW, .In Broken Hill as in Sydney, the answer is housing
The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)Whether you’re out for dinner or at children’s weekend sport, you can bet at some point the conversation will turn to housing and how costly it is. But where one can afford to live is also a hot topic 13 hours’ drive west of the state’s capital, where poor quality housing is one of several factors contributing to a looming health crisis. As Angus Thomson reports in The Sun-Herald today, the level of lead in the blood of children aged under five in Broken Hill is on the rise again, despite decades of remediation efforts in the town built on one of Australia’s richest mines.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/in-broken-hill-as-in-sydney-…
# Hot topic NSW, .Higher towers, smaller homes, fewer car spaces recommended to solve NSW housing crisis
ABC (No paywall)Higher-density zones around train stations would double in size and extend further into Sydney's eastern suburbs and north shore, under a bold set of proposals sought by the premier to solve the state's housing crisis. The NSW productivity commissioner is also recommending design standards be relaxed to allow the construction of smaller apartments without access to parking, storage or direct sunlight. Government spending priorities would shift from infrastructure projects like new metros and motorways, to projects that support rapid housing supply.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-11/higher-towers-smaller-hou…
# Must read NSW, .