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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
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Archive
Social Housing Residents Protest Demolition Plan
Channel 10 Channel 10 (No paywall)Social housing residents at Wentworth Avenue in Glebe are protesting over a plan to demolish their homes.
https://www.facebook.com/10NewsFirstSyd/videos/656941426247881/?…
# Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Campaigns and law reform, Planning and development.Greens halve their demands for backing Labor’s $10b housing bill
Anthony Galloway The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The standoff over the Albanese government’s $10 billion housing fund is a step closer to being resolved after the Greens halved their demands for supporting the legislation.
Greens leader Adam Bandt and housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather will on Sunday announce a new set of conditions that would be required for the Greens to support the bill, which will return to the Senate for debate later this month.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/greens-halve-their-deman…
# Hot topic Australia, Affordable housing, Federal Government, Housing affordability.Australia Is Facing the Biggest Housing Crisis in Generations, and Labor’s Plan Will Make It Worse
Max Chandler-Mather Jacobin (No paywall)Anthony Albanese’s Labor government is accusing Greens MPs of standing in the way of solutions to the housing crisis. But under Labor’s plan, the proportion of public housing will drop while rents keep rising.
In the middle of the worst housing crisis in Australia’s history, a major national debate has emerged over the Labor government’s proposed centerpiece housing policy, the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF).
https://jacobin.com/2023/06/australia-labor-greens-housing-futur…
# Hot topic Australia, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Planning and development.A quarter of Australia’s property investments held by 1% of taxpayers, data reveals
Mostafa Rachwani and Antoun Issa The Guardian (No paywall)Only 1% of Australian taxpayers own nearly a quarter of all property investments across the country, amid concerns over escalating rates of wealth concentration.
Data provided by the Australian Taxation Office has revealed the extent of that concentration, with more than 7% of property investors – or 215,321 people – accounting for 25% of all property investments.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/04/a-quarter…
# Must read, Hot topic, TUNSW in the media Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Get a housemate? It sounds silly, but might be the reality until Labor and the Greens can build some homes
Paul Karp The Guardian (No paywall)Philip Lowe wants everyone to get a housemate to fix the housing crisis.
It’s the sort of highly clickable headline that turns Australia’s housing woes into great content, giving angry renters someone to blame for their predicament: an out-of-touch Reserve Bank governor.
In context, what Lowe said wasn’t so silly. He merely noted while giving evidence at Senate estimates that since the pandemic “the average number of people living in each dwelling declined and that increased total demand for dwellings”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2023/ju…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.More people than ever are looking for a flatmate, with more 55+ people searching
Liana Walker ABC (No paywall)With inflation, house prices, rents and the cost of living rising RBA Governor Philip Lowe told senate estimates this week more Australians need more people in their dwellings.
But for many this is already an uncomfortable reality as pressures have hit hard and those in the industry have confirmed it is already happening.
At 39 years old, Claire did not ever foresee herself having to share her housing with anyone other than her 18-year-old daughter.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-04/record-breaking-numbers-a…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Older people.‘I’m obviously not first choice’: rental crisis forcing older Australians back into share houses
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)At 51, Mandy Pritchard does not want to live in a share house, but the unfolding rental crisis means the full-time worker may have to.
It’s a situation the Reserve Bank governor, Philip Lowe, suggested more people would need to consider to bring rents down – telling Australians on Wednesday “we need more people on average to live in each dwelling”.
After splitting with her partner of 19 years, Pritchard – an NGO worker – wants to move from Melbourne to be closer to friends in Sydney or Wollongong, and is being forced to apply for share houses.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/31/im-obviou…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Older people.Labor and the Greens don’t get along. Here’s why
Mark Kenny The Conversation (No paywall)Relations between a centrist Labor government feeling its way and an ascendant Greens party have become surprisingly strained of late.
The rancorous tone of public exchanges reveals deep-seated enmities born of an increasingly direct electoral contest in the inner cities, legitimate policy differences, and a hyper-sensitivity to criticisms made of each other.
A current flashpoint is Labor’s housing policy, or, as the Greens would describe it, Labor’s failure to square up to a full-blown rental affordability crisis.
https://theconversation.com/labor-and-the-greens-dont-get-along-…
# Hot topic Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, Housing affordability.