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
Sydney’s largest public housing estate is being redeveloped, but not all these homes need to be demolished
Rebecca McLaughlan, Alistair Sisson, Michael Zanardo & Cameron Logan The Conversation (No paywall)The New South Wales government is forging ahead with renewal of the state’s largest public housing estate. Developer Stockland and three community housing providers are contracted to deliver the first stage nearly a decade after it was announced. Some 749 homes are to be demolished and replaced with more than 3,000 new apartments. Following the Minns government’s changes in 2023, Waterloo South will comprise 30% social housing, 20% affordable housing and 50% market-rate housing. Plans for the 1,200-plus homes
https://theconversation.com/sydneys-largest-public-housing-estat…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing, Rent.Aussie tenant that recently moved spends less rent on a Melbourne house than a Sydney apartment
Sarah Petty realestate.com.au (No paywall)Tenant Lorna Wang is getting more bang for her buck leasing a three-bedroom house in Kew after renting an apartment in Sydney, and the catch is, she’s paying less rent. Ms Wang said there was “really good affordability” in Melbourne compared to other markets. “I think Melbourne hasn’t really had the run that a lot of other capital cities are seeing,” she said. As a rentvestor, or someone who is a property investor but chooses to rent, the 33-year-old said she moved to Victoria for a change of scenery, but has been able to get a lot more for her money in terms of where she’s living.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/aussie-tenant-that-recently-m…
# Must read NSW, Rent.The metro will transform this Sydney suburb but not everyone’s on board
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)It’s approaching noon as Sonny Morgan smokes a cigarette, and his mate swigs a beer, while they perch on an outdoor table in the grounds of Waterloo’s public housing estate, metres from the dazzling station which opened as part of Sydney’s new $21.6 billion metro rail line hours earlier. “I’ve been on it already this morning,” Morgan says of the rail line. “It cost me nearly $5 to get to Central. That’s $10 here and back. It’s good, it’s just the price is too high.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-metro-will-transform-thi…
# Hot topic NSW, .State can’t afford to let market decide on workers’ housing
The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When the state government announced its plan for transport-oriented development (TOD) around key Metro and train stations last year, it came with a promise of up to 15 per cent affordable housing. That would have been about one in seven apartments in each six-storey building, constructed to help working families take advantage of the city’s best suburban transport links. But, as Andrew Taylor reports, the reality will likely be far fewer new homes within the financial means of someone on a below-average income than were initially promised.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/state-can-t-afford-to-let-ma…
# Hot topic NSW, .Government faces anger over affordable housing target shortfalls
Andrew Taylor The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Affordable housing in new residential developments around Sydney train stations could fall far short of the Minns government’s promised 15 per cent target, with some areas likely to include fewer than one in 30 homes built for lower-income earners. The NSW transport-oriented development (TOD) program aims to build tens of thousands of new homes around rail and metro stations. Planning Department data shows as little as 3 per cent of new dwellings in Bankstown, in the city’s south-west, and Kellyville and Bella Vista, in the north-west, must be affordable housing.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/government-faces-anger-over-…
# Hot topic NSW, .The shocking figure that reveals the depth of Sydney’s housing crisis
Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The number of building company failures in NSW has almost trebled over the past three years, hampering the sector’s capacity to meet ambitious targets to lift housing supply. Despite record house prices and soaring rents, 1408 NSW construction firms called in administrators during the year to June as inflation and higher interest disrupted the sector.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-shocking-figure-that-rev…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.How did Singapore achieve a home ownership rate of 90 per cent? Can Australia learn anything from it?
Gareth Hutchens ABC (No paywall)There's a country near Australia that has a home ownership rate of 90 per cent. Its government wants widespread home ownership so its citizens feel like they have a stake in the country. It has a tiny land mass, so the dominant housing type is high density flats, the majority of which are built by the country's Housing Development Board (HDB). The government finances the HDB's deficits and provides loans to the HDB so it can extend mortgage loans to homebuyers with an interest rate of 2.6 per cent.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-18/singapore-homeownership-s…
# Hot topic International, .A new era for public housing and landscape-led urbanism
Karakusevic Carson Architects (No paywall)Landscape within the realm of public housing estates has long been contested. Post-war neighbourhoods in particular possess a visible generosity of it: a strong legacy of the modernist-inspired planning of our cities, when acres of green space were created to promote communal forms of living and offset new densities. However, neglect, a sense of insecurity, species monoculture and hostile nearby uses such as car parking and busy roadways have rendered many landscapes unusable. Despite their generosity and original intention, some estate open spaces can play an active role in partitioning communities and severing neighbourhoods.
https://www.karakusevic-carson.com/research/a-new-era-for-public…
# Hot topic International, Public and community housing.