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
Wealth boom masks big gaps between haves and have-nots
Clancy Yeates The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When COVID-19 smashed into the world economy a little over two years ago, who would have thought we’d end up with a massive boom in household wealth? That, however, is what we got, thanks to a bonanza in housing and sharemarkets, underpinned by ultra-cheap debt and government stimulus. ... A new report from the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) and the UNSW Sydney Poverty and Inequality Partnership ... points out that despite the early 2020 hiccup, average household wealth subsequently surged by 12 per cent to December 2020, and a massive 26 per cent to December 2021. No prizes for guessing the biggest cause of this surge: housing, which drove 69 per cent of the overall increase in wealth during these three years. Most of this came from owner-occupied housing, which contributed 55 per cent of the increase, and investment property contributing 14 per cent. Superannuation contributed 16 per cent of the increase in wealth. You will find a link to the full report at: [https://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/news/new-acoss-and-unsw-sydney-report-shows-how-poverty-and-inequality-were-dramatically-reduced-in-2020-but-have-increased-ever-since/]
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/wealth-boom-…
# Research alert Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Home ownership, Housing market.Jacob is looking for his next home, but worries he’ll have to compromise more than most
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Like many young people in Sydney, Jacob Darkin is on the hunt for a rental property after being told the home he now leases is for sale. While he’s looking for a property in Parramatta to be close to work and family, the 25-year-old who uses a wheelchair fears he may not be able to find anything accessible in the suburb. ... Changes to the building code would not only help those with a physical disability to access housing, but would also make it easier for those heading into older age, or even new parents with prams trying to get up and down stairs, she said. National Shelter Vice Chairperson John Engeler said it was not just an issue of adopting the new code, but also retrofitting existing homes. “We’ve got so many existing properties, and given 1 per cent of NSW homes are built every year, it would take 100 years before any real change comes,” Engeler said. “People with a disability shouldn’t miss out on the amenities everyone else gets.”
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/jacob-is-looking-for-his-ne…
# NSW, Privacy and access, Rent, Disability, Minimum habitability standards, State Government.Communal living is growing in Australia. Residents say it can create community and reduce cost of living
Ashleigh Barraclough ABC (No paywall)In a country where many don't know their neighbours, Laxmi and Dinesh Sanders want to do things differently. Ms Sanders is from a small village in Nepal, and wanted to raise her kids in a similar environment where neighbours lend each other a hand. "I want my children to have those sort of experiences, like going to neighbours and having meals together," she said. So when Mr Sanders's cousin told the couple about the Urban Coup, a co-housing project taking up an eight-storey apartment building in Brunswick in Melbourne's inner north, they leapt at the chance to buy in. "Different people have different experiences in their life, and each one is able to give that experience to the kids," Mr Sanders said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-22/communal-living-reduce-co…
# Video Australia, Public and community housing, Share houses, Families, Housing market, Older people.The not-for-profit real estate agents of last resort aiming to disrupt a troubled housing market
Joe Hinchliffe The Guardian (No paywall)A new model of agency has emerged to assist lower-income earners and vulnerable people. ... Samantha Gatherum-Goss drives a Hyundai and lives in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. On the Sunshine Coast, Lindell Gittoes doesn’t own a car at all. They don’t live in penthouses or have luxurious lifestyles, but their success in business is not measured by the pay packets they take home. Gatherum-Goss and Gittoes manage not-for-profit real estate agencies. Theirs is a success measured by a different set of numbers – the amount of lower-income earners and vulnerable people they help shelter, the women and children whose escape from domestic violence they help fund.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/23/the-not-f…
# Australia, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Netherlands' cardboard floating homes, Wikkelboats, could be a housing solution for areas with limited space
ABC (No paywall)Small floating houses made out of cardboard might not be everyone's cup of tea, but they are being considered as a housing solution in the Netherlands' unused harbours. Wikkelboats — or "wrap boats" in English — used for short-term accommodation are an original addition to the Rotterdam landscape, 73 kilometres to the south-east of the country's capital, Amsterdam. The floating houses are made of 1.2-metre-long cardboard segments weighing 500 kilograms each.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-21/netherlands-cardboard-flo…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.Inquiry into homelessness for older Australians faces confronting submissions
Erin Modaro (No paywall)A rising rate of senior Australians experiencing homelessness has triggered a parliamentary inquiry into a housing crisis in NSW for those over 55. With the inquiry going ahead this week, a committee has heard a multitude of stories from older Australian’s who have faced insecure housing. ... CEO of TUNSW Leo Patterson Ross spoke on a panel at the inquiry in parliament, providing suggestions for interventions to give older Australians access to stable housing. The suggested interventions include the development of genuinely affordable housing, reforming NSW tenancy law to ensure greater stability and security for people who rent their homes, and providing adequate support for older people who are renters. “These interventions are not fancy, nor particularly complicated. They simply require the political will to implement” Patterson Ross said. (City Hub)
https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2022/07/nsw-inquiry-into-homelessne…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Public and community housing, Rent, Homelessness, No-grounds evictions, Older people.Give councils cash to help bring down housing prices: think tank
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Local councils would get money directly from the federal government as a reward for approving more and higher-density housing under a proposal to help poorer and younger Australians get a foothold in the property market. Centre for Independent Studies chief economist Peter Tulip said turning the federal government’s controversial Urban Congestion Fund into a program to financially support councils dealing with increasing population densities would be one way to take pressure off housing prices in major cities.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/give-councils-cash-to-he…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development.Woman who died sleeping rough in Adelaide parklands not found for three weeks
Royce Kurmelovs The Guardian (No paywall)The body of a woman who died while sleeping rough in the Adelaide parklands was not found for three weeks. The 48-year-old woman, discovered by a man who knew her, was found in a tent in the eastern end of the parklands along South Terrace at 2pm on 22 May. ... The woman’s death is considered to be the twelfth death of a person sleeping rough this year known by the Toward Home Alliance, a group of services headed by Lutheran Care charged with running outreach programs to those sleeping rough around Adelaide.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/23/woman-who…
# Australia, Homelessness, Women.