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
I don't mind being a renter, except for this one thing
Matilda Dixon-Smith SBS (No paywall)I’ve heard the jokes about lawyers, and used-car salesmen. I know what people think of taxidermists. But, seriously, what is it with real estate agents?
https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2018/02/22/…
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents.Twelve years to sort six boxes. To bin, or not to bin - that is the question
Emma Brockes The Guardian (No paywall)I moved into my present apartment seven years ago, and my six crates of papers moved with me – directly from one closet, where they had squatted undisturbed for five years, to another, where the same fate awaited. For almost two decades, these things have followed me around, and I’ve never had the slightest inclination to go through them. Then last week, in a fit of January decluttering fervour, I decided to reclaim my closet. [Read on]
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/21/12-years-s…
# International, Health.Residents in a troubled group of Palmerston rental properties were warned to evacuate if a cyclone struck
Jesse Thompson ABC (No paywall)Families living in a group of troubled affordable rentals in Greater Darwin have been warned they will need to evacuate their homes in the event of a cyclone after teams of engineers identified problems in the homes.The warning was issued to residents of 16 homes in the Palmerston suburb of Johnston. Those homes were built to ease a growing housing affordability crisis for low and moderate income-earners in the Top End.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-23/nt-palmerston-affordable-…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Minimum habitability standards.Reserve Bank likely to confront an inflation problem and rate rise dilemma in 2022
Michael Janda ABC (No paywall)Meanwhile, the bad news? ... a household with a $500,000 mortgage will need to find more than a $100 a week in their budget by March 2024 to meet those extra [interest] repayments, and that's assuming commercial banks don't raise rates by more than the RBA.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-24/rba-likely-to-confront-in…
# Australia, Housing market, International.The Sydney suburbs bearing the brunt of the Omicron wave
Caitlin Fitzsimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Western and south-western Sydney are still bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic during the Omicron wave, accounting for a third of the state’s 650,000 cases since the beginning of December. ... Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said this reflected the demographics of the area and the fact that residents in south-western and western Sydney were doing the right thing and getting tested. “South-western Sydney and western Sydney are very populous and have lots of young people. ... Those populations are doing a lot of the jobs that we need to keep society functioning - they’re critical workers and, therefore, it’s harder for them to limit their movements. Often there are larger household sizes and more intergenerational mixing, and that’s part of the strength and amazing positives about that community. But because of those things, COVID can spread a little bit more easily.”
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-sydney-suburbs-bearing-t…
# NSW, Families, Health, Work, employment.Co-housing and dementia villages: Social innovations offer alternatives for long-term care
Sarah Tranum The Conversation (No paywall)COVID-19 has amplified existing cracks in the long-term care (LTC) system in Canada. We need socially innovative solutions to help seniors age safely and with dignity. From co-housing to community paramedicine programs, home-based primary care to publicly funded dementia villages, there is hope on the horizon.
https://theconversation.com/co-housing-and-dementia-villages-soc…
# International, Share houses, Affordable housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Housing market, Older people.Retirement villages: the destruction of retiree capital
Callum Foote (No paywall)Are retirement villages a rip-off? Retirees could be up to a million dollars worse off if they moved into a retirement village than if they remained at home, according to new analysis. (Michael West Media)
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/retirement-villages-the-destructi…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market, Older people.Security of housing tenure key to determining pension amount
Noel Whittaker The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)I have recently learned that if a person is living in a caravan (or a tiny house on a trailer that they own) located on land they do not own, then Centrelink will call that person a “homeowner”. ... For social security purposes, a homeowner is a person who has a right or interest in the place they occupy, and the right or interest gives them reasonable security of tenure. As such, a person would be considered a homeowner if they or their partner own (in part or in full) and live in a caravan which provides them with reasonable security of tenure.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/security-of-ho…
# Australia, Land lease communities, Federal Government.