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
Plans released for $100 million apartment, retail and accommodation development at Hobart's Macquarie Point
Laura Beavis and Loretta Lohberger ABC (No paywall)A planning expert is warning Tasmania must learn from the "complete disaster" of Melbourne's Docklands precinct as it redevelops Macquarie Point on Hobart's waterfront. Also, view the video at: [https://www.abc.net.au/radio/hobart/programs/drive/the-escarpment/13635012]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-16/macquarie-point-apartment…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.Rents up, listings down as inner-city suburbs continue COVID-19 recovery
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Australia’s capital city unit rents are continuing to recover, new data shows, thanks – in part – to new locally-based tenants entering the market for the first time attracted by cheaper rents. Property managers say the type of tenant is changing in inner Melbourne and Sydney after the two cities, whose apartment rental markets have traditionally relied heavily on international students and overseas professionals, took the brunt of the pandemic rental falls. These new tenants, including professionals returning to the office and looking to rent an affordable inner-city pad rather than commute more than 10 hours a week from outer suburbs or regional areas, have helped see a drop in the number of available rentals.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/rents-up-and-the-number-of-listin…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Was relocating a good move? As the city reopens, I’m feeling a bit of FOMO
Kate Halfpenny The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)There are tons of people like us who ran for the hills during COVID. By August, over 22,000 of us decamped from Melbourne to rural Victoria. We were set on a cruisier life and bigger houses for less money, strangely pricked – me anyway – by the passage of time. Now, with Melbourne reopening, I’m feeling the odd prick of FOMO. I wonder how everyone else is going. Did we make a giant mistake? Is the countryside all it’s cracked up to be or is it now awash with townies suffering relocation remorse?
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/was-relo…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home, Housing market.Time is running out for Beijing to fix China’s property crisis
Shuli Ren The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)To avoid hurting the broader economy, China is considering easing rules to let its distressed real estate developers sell off assets to avoid defaults. ... Desperate times demand desperate measures. Beijing has vowed not to bail out Evergrande, already the world’s most indebted developer. But market conditions have worsened since it made that promise in mid-October. Even investment-grade builders like Country Garden have seen its bonds tumble, a sign that contagion risk is real. China has to find a workable solution to fix the developer debt crisis. Time is running out. Also, check out the story at: [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-15/china-home-market-slump-deepens-as-prices-fall-for-second-month]
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/time-is-running-out-…
# International, Housing market.You don’t have to hit everything with a hammer’: APRA boss weighs housing risks
Elizabeth Knight The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Last week the financial regulator warned banks it might play a part in cooling the sizzling Australian home lending market. On Monday its chairman Wayne Byres appeared to tone down the risk the regulator would further stick its regulatory oar into mortgage lending.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/you-don-t-ha…
# Australia, Housing market.Prime land in Sydney suburb of Haberfield expected to go under hammer after 18-year delay
Tony Ibrahim ABC (No paywall)A large parcel of land in a sought-after Sydney suburb is scheduled to go on sale after being stuck in a bureaucratic logjam for nearly two decades. The Department of Defence will put its old army base in Haberfield on sale by early next year, freeing up 19,000 square metres just 7 kilometres west of the CBD. Work is underway to divide the land at 140A Hawthorne Parade into 21 lots that can be developed into residential homes, ranging in size from 500 to 1,048 square metres. Real estate agents value it between $40 million to $60 million.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-16/former-haberfield-army-ba…
# NSW, Housing market.Property price discounts on the rise in most Australian capital cities as hot market shows signs of cooling
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Home vendors are starting to offer discounts to secure a sale, new data shows, especially in Sydney and Melbourne where signs point to the super hot market beginning to cool. But as veterans of the longest lockdowns flee the major capitals and move interstate, strong demand in the relatively affordable Brisbane and Hobart markets has ensured those cities buck the trend and discounts remain uncommon.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/property-price-discounts-on-the-r…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership.Watch this show before you utter these four words
Jenny Leong The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Earlier this year, while filming SBS series 'Could You Survive on the Breadline?', I was left to my own devices and told to try and find work. The accommodation I was staying in was an empty shopfront turned low-rent accommodation. It had an outdoor toilet with a shower, but the drain was blocked so when you tried to shower the dirty water all came up and flooded the floor. ... "Just get a job” to those currently living on income support is as problematic and offensive as any of these other insults.
https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/watch-th…
# NSW, Personal stories, Work, employment.