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
Tasmanian government urged to do something about housing crisis in island's north-west
Piia Wirsu ABC (No paywall)Rochelle Gordon has been on the priority public housing waiting list for two-and-a-half years, and she says it is damaging her physical and mental health. Her private rental in Stanley has uneven floors, a shower over a bath stained with rust, narrow access paths and low doorways, but it's all she can afford.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-07/housing-crisis-worsens-in…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Health.New laws set to protect ACT buyers from developers rescinding sales after raft of complaints
Elizabeth Byrne ABC (No paywall)Off-the-plan buyers in Canberra are set for greater protections from this week, with a new law making it harder for developers to cancel sales. The new law has been prompted by dozens of complaints from people who bought off-the-plan properties from the 3 Property Group, only to have them rescinded earlier this year.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-07/new-laws-offer-protection…
# Australia, Strata, Housing market.Rental vacancy rates fall again in October as economic and health conditions improve: Domain data
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)The improving economic and health outlook has prompted a rush of tenants to lease vacant rental properties, new data shows, as east coast states emerge from lockdown with high vaccination rates and more certainty. Rents will likely continue to rise and vacancy rates will fall further once international borders reopen but the rental market will not see the same boom as the sales market due to the glut of apartments, agents said.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/rental-vacancy-rates-fall-again-i…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.A Quietly Big Idea on How We Think About Homeless People
The New York Times (Paywall)Should housing status be a protected category like race, gender or religion?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/01/opinion/california-homeless-c…
# International, Homelessness.Australian banks lift fixed interest home loan rates despite RBA keeping official rate at record low
Ben Butler The Guardian (No paywall)The big banks have begun jacking up fixed interest home loan rates even though the Reserve Bank of Australia has not increased official rates in a decade and on Friday signalled it was unlikely to do so until 2024. Even with official rates frozen at record lows, banks say wholesale funding costs are increasing, in part because of the RBA’s decision earlier this year to stop lending them money at concessional rates. Interest rates could start to creep up in 2023, a year earlier than previously expected, the RBA said.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/nov/05/australia…
# Australia, Housing market.Mid-range home-buyers paying a growing share of stamp duty
Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Those purchasing properties in the $1 million to $3 million range have paid a growing share of stamp duty revenue in NSW during the past three years while the proportion collected on more expensive property sales has been declining.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/mid-range-home-buyers-paying…
# NSW, Housing market, Tax.RBA says we are in a W-shaped recovery, with housing one of the few concerns
John Hawkins The Conversation (No paywall)The Reserve Bank has used Friday’s quarterly assessment of the economy to declare that lockdowns have “delayed but not derailed” Australia’s recovery.
https://theconversation.com/rba-says-we-are-in-a-w-shaped-recove…
# Australia, Housing market.Big Melbourne is coming back, but do we still want it?
Noel Towell and Cara Waters The Age (Paywall)But then the virus came. Melbourne suddenly went from one of the fastest-growing cities in the developed world, on track to overtake Sydney as Australia’s biggest metropolitan centre within a few years, to one with a shrinking population. Overseas migration halted overnight as borders slammed shut, temporary residents went home and other Melburnians fled interstate or to the regions to escape the city’s lockdowns. Now Australia’s international borders are slowly opening up and experts say the scene is set for a return to the rapid population growth that drove the state’s economy to record heights in the seven years prior to the pandemic, with migrants attracted to the city by the same thing that brought them here between 2013 and 2019 in their hundreds of thousands: jobs.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/big-melbourne-is-com…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market, Planning and development, Work, employment.