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
Housing in Australia must become part of the circular economy – here’s how it can begin
Tom Alves The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Transitioning to a circular economy model for the Australian housing sector is more pressing than ever. Recent AHURI research finds government and financial institutions have important roles to play as catalysts for the housing sector to make the shift. Australian homes, through their entire life cycle, contribute significantly to our country’s carbon emissions. From the energy required to heat, cool, and maintain a building to the embodied carbon emissions within construction materials, the impact is substantial. The Australian construction industry, including housing, accounted for 18 per cent of the nation’s carbon footprint in 2013, with residential building construction contributing a quarter of total construction embodied emissions.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/housing-2/housing-in-australia-mus…
# Hot topic Australia, .Affordable housing beyond reach in all Australia’s eastern capitals, data shows
Sarah Basford Canales The Guardian (No paywall)Affordable housing is now beyond reach in all Australia’s eastern capitals, according to new analysis released by the Greens, with the average annual salary needed to buy a home without financial stress $164,400. There are just two capitals – greater Perth and Darwin – where the cost of a unit would not put the average earner under housing stress, according to the Parliamentary Library’s analysis of data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and CoreLogic.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/20/affordabl…
# Hot topic Australia, .Inquiry Into Victoria's Public Housing Tower Demolition Plan Launched
Aleksandra Bliszczyk Vice (No paywall)All 44 of Victoria’s public housing high-rise towers will be demolished and rebuilt by private developers under a controversial plan announced last year that will soon be the focus of a new parliamentary inquiry. The Greens introduced a motion for an inquiry to the state’s Upper House, where they hold the balance of power, and on Wednesday it was passed with the support of the Coalition and the crossbench. The inquiry will investigate the reasoning and cost-modelling behind the plan – which was announced by the Andrews Government in September as part of its Housing Statement, preparing for the next 10 years – as well as whether alternatives were considered and the plan’s impact on current public housing residents.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/jg59qb/victoria-public-housing-t…
# Hot topic, Legal significance Australia, Public and community housing.If you’ve got a dark roof, you’re spending almost $700 extra a year to keep your house cool
Sebastian Pfautsch & Riccardo Paolini The Conversation (No paywall)If you visit southern Greece or Tunisia, you might notice lots of white rooftops and white buildings to reflect the intense heat and keep residents cooler. It’s very different in Australia. New housing estates in the hottest areas around Sydney and Melbourne are dominated by dark rooftops, black roads and minimal tree cover. Dark colours trap and hold heat rather than reflect it. That might be useful in winters in Tasmania, but not where heat is an issue. A dark roof means you’ll pay considerably more to keep your house cool in summer. Last year, the average household in New South Wales paid A$1827 in electricity.
https://theconversation.com/if-youve-got-a-dark-roof-youre-spend…
# Must read Australia, Disasters.High-profile strata company Netstrata caught charging excessive fees and taking kickbacks
Linton Besser & Ninah Kopel, ABC Investigations ABC (No paywall)One of the country's most high-profile strata management firms has been using its wholly owned insurance arm to charge apartment owners insurance brokerage fees as high as three times the typical rate. The company, Netstrata, has also been taking kickbacks from contractors and suppliers it hires using the strata funds of more than 1,000 buildings, and 35,000 apartments, across NSW. To the outrage of owners and advocates, it appears the company's conduct has been permissible under NSW law. The revelations form part of a new ABC investigation into the national strata management industry that is launching on Thursday.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-21/netstrata-strata-charging…
# Hot topic Australia, Strata.Potential Airbnb ban, 'no deposit' home loans and rent subsidies: Radical policies show how housing might swing elections
Daniel Ziffer ABC (No paywall)Emily Bresnahan has returned from an international exchange to find there's no room for her, except on the couches in her friend's share houses. That's where she's sleeping tonight. But she doesn't know where she's sleeping tomorrow night. "I don't know. Yeah, I know where I can stay. But I haven't lined it up that far," she says. Already in a vulnerable position, the question seems to throw her off guard. "Yeah. Just a bit worrying. when you ask it like that," she says. "I don't tell my Mum that usually."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-20/airbnb-ban-no-deposit-hom…
# Australia, Rent, Security and safety, Share houses.Taskforce To Crack Down On Dodgy Rentals
Victorian Government (No paywall)The Allan Labor Government is establishing a new renting taskforce to crack down on rental providers and estate agents who do the wrong thing.
More than 130 rental reforms the Labor Government introduced in 2021 increased protections for renters while making it easier for owners to manage rental properties, but some rental providers are still trying to get away with poor conduct.
https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/taskforce-crack-down-dodgy-rental…
# Australia, Rent, Security and safety.Building remote Indigenous homes well is hard, but they won’t cost $1.5 million each
Liam Grealy The Conversation (No paywall)At the remote Indigenous community of Binjari, south of Katherine in the Northern Territory last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a landmark A$4 billion investment in remote housing across the Territory. He said the ten-year commitment by the Commonwealth and Territory governments would deliver up to an extra 270 houses per year, a total of 2,700. At the press conference, Albanese was told $4 billion for 2,700 houses worked out at about $1.5 million each. He was asked whether each house could possibly cost that much to build.
https://theconversation.com/building-remote-indigenous-homes-wel…
# Hot topic Australia, Aboriginal renters.