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
Hot property market and Covid trigger horror rental stories
Judith Kerr (Paywall)Covid and an overheated property market have created a battlefield between landlords and tenants, with horror stories of cockroaches, broken doors, clogged toilets and even a family who had to endure weeks without a roof. (The Courier Mail)
https://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/logan/hot-property-mark…
# Australia, Rent, Repairs, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.RBA weighs risks of hot property market
Emma Koehn The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)At 1.40pm ... The Reserve Bank of Australia says it is watching Australia’s booming housing prices closely but is holding off from any macro-prudential interventions at this stage. In a speech delivered to a Bloomberg event today assistant governor Michele Bullock said the bank was weighing the risks of Australia’s post-COVID property boom closely.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/asx-to-open-lower-iron-o…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing market.Rising house prices offer NSW a recovery opportunity
Editorial The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The long Sydney lockdown has created a strange paradox where house prices have risen even as the economy struggles. ... The problem of rising house prices is not the absolute level of house prices but the fairness for young people looking to buy a house for the first time. It is particularly acute because young people have been most affected by the lockdowns and made the most sacrifices for lockdown. Their incomes have, in many cases, fallen the most.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/rising-house-prices-offers-n…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, State Government, Young people.Soaring housing debt a financial risk: Reserve Bank
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Spiralling household debt tied to the nation’s soaring property prices could pose a risk to the financial system, the Reserve Bank has cautioned as home values across capital cities continue to climb.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/soaring-housing-debt-a-f…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market, State Government.Reserve Bank says Australia’s house prices could pose ‘risk to financial stability’
Amy Remeikis The Guardian (No paywall)Australia’s ballooning housing prices – and the associated household debt for mortgage holders – could pose a risk to the economy’s financial stability in the event of a sudden downturn in prices.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/22/reserve-b…
# Australia, Housing market.‘Unbiased and equitable’: Peak legal body calls for fairer NSW land acquisition laws
Angus Thompson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)NSW’s peak legal body is calling for a significant review into the state’s compulsory acquisition laws to even the stakes between the government and landowners, who say they’ve been squeezed by officials buying lots for major infrastructure projects.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/unbiased-and-equitable-peak-…
# NSW, Housing market, Planning and development.Governments need to care more about renters and defer less to wealthy home owners, think tank says
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Governments need to care more about renters and young home buyers and defer less to older, wealthier home owners who fear change and block new housing supply in their neighbourhoods, one of the country’s top economists said. Australia’s housing affordability crisis has been caused by planning restrictions that pander to NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard), blocking new housing construction, the chief economist at conservative think tank Centre for Independent Studies, Peter Tulip, told Domain.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/governments-need-to-care-more-abo…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing market, Planning and development, Young people.Glenlee home in Sydney's south at centre of development tug-of-war
Tony Ibrahim ABC (No paywall)Tucked away in Sydney's southern suburbs, a multi-million-dollar homestead is at the centre of a development tug-of-war. Glenlee, a century-old waterfront home in Sydney's Georges River Local Government Area (LGA), is a time capsule of traditional Indigenous owners, Australia's federation, and a wildlife sanctuary, but that could change.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-23/glenlee-property-centre-o…
# NSW, Heritage listings, Housing market.