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
Why are Australian houses so cold, and how can we build 1.2m new ones without trashing the environment?
Philip Oldfield The Guardian (No paywall)The federal government has set a target of building 1.2m new homes in Australia by 2029. If we construct these homes the same way as we do today, their materials will contribute to millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, while our poorly performing existing homes will remain freezing in the winter. We need to change the way we design, build and retrofit housing to avoid a climate catastrophe.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/17/wh…
# Must read Australia, Utilities water energy internet.102 millionaires paid no tax and the richest and poorest postcodes and occupations revealed
Nassim Khadem ABC (No paywall)More than 100 Australians earned more than $1 million in total income yet paid no tax in 2021–22, while Australia's highest earners live in Double Bay, according to newly released data from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). In its latest annual Taxation Statistics, data extracted from tax returns reveals the number of people who earned more than $1 million but paid no tax has climbed to 102 in 2021–22, up from 66 a year earlier. Analysis of the data by the Australia Institute and the ABC shows this cohort of affluent taxpayers earned on average $3.8 million each. Overall, these 102 millionaires claimed $279 million worth of different deductions to reduce their tax bills to zero.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-17/millionaires-paid-no-tax-…
# Hot topic Australia, .New South Wales, Victoria unveil new plans to tackle housing crisis
Essam Al-Ghalib SBS (No paywall)It was news that was a surprise to almost no-one: Sydney and Melbourne being ranked in an international study as being "impossibly unaffordable". The two capitals were ranked in the top 10 of most expensive places to live in Chapman University’s Frontier Centre for Public Policy’s Demographia International Housing Affordability report. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has now announced plans to make things a little easier - at least for the state's essential workers, who will be offered rents at subsidised prices.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast-episode/new-south-wales-vict…
# Hot topic, Audio Australia, Rent.Co-living has been touted as one way to combat the housing crisis, but some say the concept is about maximising rent
Zilla Gordon ABC (No paywall)More than 350,000 Australians are living as part of a group household according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) — more than ever before. While the ABS defines group housing as a household consisting of two unrelated people where all the residents are aged 15 years or older, they're also referred to as share houses. Demand for this type of accommodation has skyrocketed amid an exceedingly tight rental market and affordability crisis — and it's left people looking for alternatives. Some say co-living — housing where some spaces are shared with other residents — could be the solution. But one planning expert believes the concept is a marketing ploy.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-18/co-living-housing-crisis-…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Share houses, Starting a tenancy.Alan Kohler: We need an AEMO for housing to match supply with demand
Alan Kohler The New Daily (No paywall)Here’s why nothing effective is being done about housing affordability. In the past 12 months, every Australian who owns a house or apartment, which is most of us, made an extra $82,648, on average, from the increase in its value, and since only half of that gets taxed, it’s more than the average wage. The ABS reports that the total value of dwelling stock at the end of March was $10.7 trillion, $917.4 billion more than a year ago, and there are 11.1 million dwellings. Actually the 12-month capital gain for home owners was 12 per cent, since there is a total of $2.3 trillion in mortgage debt, so the total equity of Australia’s home owners increased from $7.5 trillion to $8.4 trillion.
https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2024/06/18/alan-kohler-ae…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, .Rental in ruins after property manager pockets nearly $10k in funds paid by landlord for repairs
Zarisha Bradley 9 News (No paywall)You've got to see the state of this rental to believe it. It's severely damaged and disgusting. The landlords paid repair bills over the years but it turns out that money never left the property manager's pocket. "This was done as an investment property for our retirement and it's pretty much all gone to hell," landlord Jennifer Creighton told A Current Affair. "You can't get much lower than this." The Creightons' tenancy trouble didn't come to light until their family received heartbreaking news. "So I was diagnosed with cancer and it's terminal so we wanted to put the running of the property into my daughter Kim's name and my son Brady's name so that we could finalise it, put it up for sale and have it gone before anything happened to me," Jennifer said.
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/rental-in-ruins-after-…
# Video Australia, Rent, Repairs.Struggling with rent? It’s time to speak up
Dominic Powell The Age (Soft Paywall)In Australia, almost exactly one third of us are renters, with the other two thirds owning homes either with or without a mortgage. Of that third who rent, approximately 60 per cent are aged 35 and under, a significant increase from the late 20th century when many people in this age bracket were homeowners. A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says the rise in renting “has had a disproportionate impact on younger households”, a demographic who are also disproportionately affected by the current cost of living crisis. They’re axing their spending far more than older generations, partially due to – you guessed it – being renters instead of homeowners.
https://www.theage.com.au/money/saving/struggling-with-rent-it-s…
# TUNSW in the media Australia, Rent.Social rent homes in England fall by more than quarter of a million in decade
Chaminda Jayanetti The Guardian (No paywall)More than a quarter of a million social rent homes in England have been lost in the last decade, according to analysis of government statistics. Between April 2013 and April 2023, the number of social housing homes owned by local authorities and housing associations in England fell by 260,464 units, according to the charity Shelter, which calculated the figures. Polly Neate, its chief executive, said: “We are seeing more social housing being sold off or demolished than built, despite the staggering 1.3m households stuck on social housing waiting lists in desperate need of a genuinely affordable home.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jun/09/social-r…
# Must read International, Public and community housing, Rent.