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
Ways to better ventilate your rental to reduce mould and indoor COVID spread
Madi Chwasta ABC (No paywall)As well as badly affecting your health in the long run, it's a sure sign the ventilation in your home isn't working properly. But needing good ventilation is becoming more than just avoiding mould — the experts say it can help reduce the spread of COVID-19 indoors. It's trickier if you're living in a rental. It means you probably can't retrofit expensive ventilation systems to get the air moving in and out of your home.
However, the experts say there are things you can do ...
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/how-to-better-ventilate-rental-h…
# Australia, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health, Mould.Federal election 2021: More supply won’t solve Canada’s housing affordability crisis
Joel Roberts The Conversation (No paywall)From Canada ... Few topics during the federal election campaign have garnered more attention than high house prices and a lack of housing affordability. Both Conservatives and Liberals say a major problem is a lack of housing supply. To address the issue, they promise to build millions of additional houses. Contrary to popular belief, high house prices are not due to supply shortages. The COVID-19 pandemic should have made this clear. ... Promises to build millions of more houses make it seem as though politicians are fighting hard to keep the dream of home ownership alive. In reality, it’s not a meaningful solution. But maybe that’s the point.
Politicians know that many of their constituents are relying on high house prices to secure their retirement or pay for their kids’ tuition, so it’s unlikely they even want prices to fall.
https://theconversation.com/federal-election-2021-more-supply-wo…
# International, Rent, Affordable housing, Home ownership, Housing market.House price to income ratio continues to climb amid property boom and low wage growth
Kate Burke Domain (No paywall)The growing gap between incomes and property prices is likely to worsen before it gets better, experts say, making it harder than ever for first-home buyers to save a deposit. Property prices across Australia are now more than five times household disposable incomes and set to climb higher still, as the property market booms while wage growth remains sluggish. Houses are now making more money than some of Australia’s top-paid professionals.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/house-price-to-income-ratio-conti…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.How planning is failing to address race inequality in housing
Jess McCabe Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United KIngdom ... Black people are more than three times as likely as white people in England to experience homelessness. Shelter research earlier this year concluded that one million Black adults (57%) in Britain and 1.8 million Asian adults (48%) do not have a safe or secure home, compared with 33% of white adults. .... One answer that has not had enough attention ... lies in the planning departments of local authorities. A new report by Amy Bristow ... sets out how planning has, in fact, been contributing to the problem instead.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/how-planning-is-…
# International, Public and community housing, Local Government, Planning and development.Miami's best real estate is under threat from rising sea levels, so the wealthy are moving to higher ground
Emily Olson ABC (No paywall)When an apartment building collapsed just 25 minutes from his home, Ivory Artis was grappling with the potential loss of his own apartment in Miami. As sea levels rise, prime beach real estate has been losing its cachet. Developers have started looking inland, in marginalised communities like Ivory's, to build luxury homes for the coastal elite. This February, a California-based capital firm bought the three-storey building where Ivory has kept a one-bedroom apartment for over 16 years. In May, the new manager notified the tenants they had 60 days to vacate the property.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-14/miami-building-collapse-c…
# International, Eviction, Rent, Climate change, Housing market, Race and ethnicity.Increased housing supply is dependent on profitability of developments: AHURI
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Investment in major infrastructure projects, streamlining development approvals and reducing the cost of developments are some of the ways governments can improve housing supply around Australia, a housing expert says. ... [Australia Housing and Urban Research Institute director Steven Rowley] said while there was plenty of residential construction around Australia, it was unevenly spread. Not enough was built in areas of demand, causing upward pressure on prices during lockdown.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/increased-housing-supply-is-depen…
# Australia, Housing market, Planning and development.Inner West: Strathfield home featured as part of 2021 Sustainable House Day
Daniel Lo Surdo (No paywall)A Strathfield South home has been featured as part of 2021 Sustainable House Day. The house, named the PassivCourtyard, is a Passive House, meaning that it is nearly airtight and highly insulated to allow the temperature to be kept stable throughout the year.
https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2021/09/inner-west-strathfield-home…
# NSW, Climate change, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.House prices jump $52,600 in three months, and the Reserve Bank says it can't do much about it
Gareth Hutchens ABC (No paywall)Australian house prices are now 19 per cent higher than they were before the pandemic, but the Reserve Bank of Australia won't be lifting interest rates to dampen them. RBA governor Philip Lowe said he had said it before, but it was not the role of monetary policy to target house prices. "Ever-rising housing prices relative to income, I don't think serves our collective good very well, it's something that as a citizen I would like to see addressed, but as a central bank we can't do anything about," he said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-14/house-prices-jump-52600-i…
# Australia, Housing market.