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
Brain-dead: China’s embattled property giant on road to nowhere
Stephen Bartholomeusz The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The fissures in China’s property markets first surfaced publicly a year ago when it became apparent that China Evergrande was struggling to meet payments to suppliers and other creditors. A year on and it is apparent that the world’s most indebted property developer remains essentially brain-dead and on life support and that the property crisis it ignited is spreading and deepening.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/brain-dead-c…
# International, Housing market, International, Landlords and agents.Roberts to decide final plans for Central Barangaroo as objections pour in
Michael Koziol and Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Planning Minister Anthony Roberts would need to override strenuous objections from the National Trust, local MP Alex Greenwich, the City of Sydney, Millers Point residents and other stakeholders if he is to approve controversial changes to the final piece of the Barangaroo mega-project. The government has been inundated with objections to modified plans for Central Barangaroo – the middle section between Crown Sydney and Barangaroo Reserve – including a 20-storey building the National Trust has called “shocking”. The Herald has confirmed Roberts will be the decision-maker on the proposed changes, rather than the Independent Planning Commission.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/roberts-to-decide-final-plan…
# NSW, Heritage listings, Housing market, Local Government, Planning and development, State Government.‘It’s like a massive Tetris game’: the hell that is moving house
Amanda Hooton The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Moving house is hell, they say. They are wrong. Moving house was fine. We had our excellent neighbours, we had my father-in-(common)-law with his big ute, his three trolleys and his wheelbarrow; we had one of those thrilling tape-applying devices that the people at Australia Post use. Our only real error was believing that because we were only moving 100 metres away, we didn’t need to hire professionals, or be systematic about packing. Instead, we decided to just throw things in boxes, or not, and “walk them round”. Do these three words sound like the tolling bells of doom? They should.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/it-s-like-a-massive-tetris-game-…
# NSW, Families, Housing market.Homeless man tackled by SA Premier's security during press conference vows to fight charges
Candice Prosser ABC (No paywall)A homeless man who was tackled to the ground and arrested in front of the South Australian Premier at a press conference in Adelaide says he feels he was unfairly targeted by police. ... After his court hearing, he told the media he meant no harm when he moved closer to the press conference to see what was going on. "I was just passing by and was curious to watch, see what it was about," he said. "I feel very much that I was unfairly targeted.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-05/man-arrested-during-premi…
# Australia, Homelessness.Why Australian banks are slashing fixed-rate home loans despite successive interest rate rises
Ian Verrender ABC (No paywall)It may have gone largely unnoticed among the screeching sirens and the roar of emergency vehicles — but interest rates actually fell last week. That's right. In the rush to deliver the bad news on a hugely telegraphed double hike in the official cash rate — which the big four banks passed on in full on their variable rates — most news outlets overlooked the fact that some key lending rates were actually slashed. Fixed-term rates, especially for four years, were cut — in some cases, dramatically — by the likes of Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Macquarie and Suncorp. The decisions were a sudden reversal to some savage hikes on fixed rates just weeks ago by our major lenders.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-08/australian-banks-are-slas…
# Australia, Housing market.Calls for better government assistance amid booming rental market
Elias Clure ABC (No paywall)Leading housing experts have called for a major overhaul of the government's rent assistance program, describing the payments to low-income households as "inadequate" while rental costs continue to skyrocket. n analysis of the scheme by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) also found households which were not in rental stress were still receiving payments, while people living in hugely expensive areas were not getting enough. AHURI managing director Michael Fotheringham said the key issue with the government's rental assistance was that the payments rose with overall inflation and were not directly linked to rising rental costs or geographic rental trends. "One of the challenges is that it is not targeted to renters in any way," Mr Fotheringham said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-01/rental-market-pressure-pr…
# Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing market, Older people, Welfare.The Guardian view on housing costs: a grave and growing injustice
Editorial The Guardian (No paywall)Levelling up will be impossible as long as rents and house prices are allowed to keep on climbing. The housing prospects facing the roughly one-third of British people who do not own their own homes continue to get worse. Hopes that the pandemic would lead to an easing of pressures, because remote working would increase flexibility for those making decisions about where to live, have been crushed. Instead, prices rose 10% between March 2020 and March 2021, and have kept on rising. June saw a year-on-year increase of 13%. Private rents are also at record levels, with recent figures showing the average outside London up 11.8% on a year ago. In the capital the figure is 15.8%. Because the majority are homeowners, attitudes surrounding housing inflation are at odds with those around rising prices for energy or food. But for those renting privately or hoping to buy, it forms part of a wider affordability crisis. Particularly for younger people ... [Read on]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/31/the-guardi…
# International, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Young people.'If you don’t like it, leave’: renters priced out of their homes as landlords pass on costs of RBA rate hikes
Rafqa Touma The Guardian (No paywall)Tenants who have already seen their rent rise to unaffordable levels in response to interest rate hikes fear they will face further increases, after the Reserve Bank of Australia lifted the cash rate for a fourth consecutive month. ... The policy and advocacy manager at Tenants’ Union of NSW, Jemima Mowbray, said on average it costs a household about $4,000 each time they move, not including the bond cost. “You’re facing the stress of not being able to find a home, scrambling to find something more affordable,” she said. “But you’re also going to build up a debt.” As financial pressure builds, Mowbray said “more households are not being able to cover the costs of basic needs”. ... The New South Wales Greens MP for Newtown, Jenny Leong, said there was a “desperate need” to reform rental laws. She has introduced a new bill to NSW parliament “regulating measures to provide relief and protection for renters”. “People are going to libraries or community spaces to stay warm because they can’t afford to pay rent and keep the heating on,” she said. The bill includes a cap on rents in line with the consumer price index.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/04/if-you-do…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent, Housing market, State Government.