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
Michael Gove reappointed as housing secretary
Jack Simpson Inside Housing (Paywall)New prime minister Rishi Sunak picked Mr Gove for the job of secretary of state for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities this afternoon as part of his cabinet reshuffle. The appointment is a return for Mr Gove, who spent 10 months in the role between September last year and July this year. He was eventually sacked by prime minister at the time Boris Johnson, just days before the PM announced his own resignation. ... The Social Housing Regulation Bill was put before parliament under Mr Gove’s watch, while the Renters Reform Bill was also published during his time as housing secretary. The white paper importantly included a plan to scrap ‘no-fault’ evictions.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/michael-gove-reappointed-as…
# International, No-grounds evictions.Medibank and Optus hacks spark warning over identity theft risks from former victims
Rebecca Trigger ABC (No paywall)Sarah believes the way her identity became hijacked wasn't something she could have foreseen. While living in Melbourne, she sent a photo of her licence to a real estate agent applying for a lease, and that image was somehow then uploaded into a gallery of property photos featured on that agent's website.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-27/identity-theft-warning-af…
# Australia, Privacy and access, Landlords and agents.Cat wandering ban at Tasmania's new Huntingfield housing development due to endangered bird species
Adam Holmes ABC (No paywall)One of the biggest housing developments in Tasmania for decades has achieved federal environmental approval but with a major catch — residents will need to prove their pet cats will stay on their property. The presence of the critically-endangered forty-spotted pardalote in a neighbouring reserve meant the second and third stages of the 470-lot Huntingfield development needed to be considered by the Commonwealth.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-19/huntingfield-development-…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market.My house has been flooded, what's the first thing I need to do? Here are the do's and don'ts of the big clean-up
ABC (No paywall)We all know the saying: if it's flooded, forget it. But the dangers don't end when the flood waters recede. The damage it leaves behind is sometimes obvious, but it's what you can't see that can be just as dangerous: water contamination, exposed power lines, gas leaks and more. Here are some of the do's and don'ts in the immediate aftermath of a flood. ... It may look like it's "just water", but there's a lot more lurking in those murky depths. Polluted flood waters can cause wounds, infections, diarrhoea, conjunctivitis as well as ear, nose and throat infections. [Read on]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-21/what-to-do-in-the-afterma…
# Australia, .As the cost of living bites, a homelessness crisis on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula is worsening
Margaret Paul ABC (No paywall)Victoria's Mornington Peninsula is known for being a popular holiday destination, a place where people can spend tens of millions of dollars on clifftop mansions in its more exclusive areas. Hidden from that rosy view are the 1,000 people who, the council says, are sleeping rough in tents and cars along the peninsula every night. Wilbur is one of them. ... The 25-year-old has been homeless for about two years, since he had to move out of his parents' place at Safety Beach. He's been living in a tent on the Rosebud foreshore, about 90 kilometres south-east of Melbourne's CBD, for about six months. Working four days a week at a local cafe and living with mental illness, Wilbur said he worked hard to have a positive attitude to being homeless, because it was the only way to get by.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-25/homelessness-increasing-i…
# Australia, Homelessness.Systemic buybacks could avert future flood crisis, experts say
Matilda Marozzi ABC (No paywall)Several planners are calling for a systemic program of compulsory land buybacks in disaster-prone areas across Australia. University of Melbourne planning and risk reduction researcher Alan March said people's lives would be affected again and again without governments investing more in disaster prevention. "It will take a huge amount of leadership to change our approach," Professor March told The Conversation Hour. "We need to look at a long-term, whole-of-system view to really make this work."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-23/systemic-buybacks-could-a…
# Australia, Housing market.Sydney house prices falling at fastest pace on record
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)Sydney house prices are falling at their fastest rate in decades, and some of the hardest-hit neighbourhoods have dropped by more than $250,000 in three months. House prices fell 5.2 per cent over the September quarter, wiping almost $80,000 off the median sale price, which sits at about $1,464,000, Domain’s latest house price report, released on Thursday, shows.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/sydney-house-prices-falling…
# NSW, Housing market, Sydney.Building subsidized low-income housing actually lifts property values in a neighborhood, contradicting NIMBY concerns
Anthony W. Orlando The Conversation (No paywall)From the United States ... Building multiple publicly subsidized low-income housing developments in a neighborhood doesn’t lower the value of other homes in the area – and in fact can even increase their worth, according to a new peer-reviewed study I co-authored. For the study, we looked at 508 developments financed through the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program and built in the Chicago area from 1997 to 2016. We then examined their influence on more than 600,000 nearby residential sales, using data from local property assessments and tax records. ... We found that, relative to comparable homes in other neighborhoods, average home prices jumped by 10% within a quarter-mile of the first affordable housing development that was built in a neighborhood and 2% within a quarter-mile over a 15-year period or through 2016.
https://theconversation.com/building-subsidized-low-income-housi…
# International, Public and community housing, Housing market.