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
Where to get legitimate help to make ends meet during lockdown
Nicole Pedersn-McKinnon The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)COVID-19 has necessitated many months of lockdowns at home in New South Wales and Victoria over the past year and a half. And if you can’t do your job from home, or go in as an essential worker, financial stress is likely to have well and truly kicked in by now. ... Repayment holidays are most common with mortgage issuers, possibly your biggest source of financial pressure. However, utility providers are also now stepping up to assist struggling families. Reprieves are also being granted by insurers – in particular, health. ... This seems too good to be true, but household relief loans without interest are being offered by charity Good Shepherd Microfinance. [Read more]
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/where-to-get…
# NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families.Albany youth service Young House teaches young people how to cook, clean and save for a home
Evelyn Manfield ABC (No paywall)At just 22, [Nick Chalkley-Bisset] is ready to buy a place with his brother, and the pair have just received the good news that they have been pre-approved for a home loan. It is not just impressive because of his age, but because in recent years he has been homeless numerous times. ... Mr Chalkley-Bisset has stayed on and off at a refuge in Albany since he was a teenager. ... [Albany Youth Support Association] helps connect young people to youth workers and future accommodation, and gives them some of the life skills they might not have been taught at school, such as financial management, cooking and cleaning.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-13/albany-youth-service-chan…
# Australia, Home ownership, Homelessness, Young people.‘Perfect storm’: Why delays and price hikes are plaguing home builders
Warwick Jones The New Daily (No paywall)In 2019, Hayley Locke and her husband Jayden began building their forever home in Warrnambool on Victoria’s south-west coast. Ms Locke never imagined that more than two years later they would still be living in a small, three-bedroom rental with three kids during lockdown, while waiting for their dream home to be finished. The Lockes are among more than 100,000 home owners reeling from long delays and record-high prices as Australia endures its worst building supply shortage in more than 40 years.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2021/09/12/home-builder…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.LMI is 'dead money', so some home buyers are finding ways to avoid paying mortgage insurance
Emilia Terzon ABC (No paywall)With soaring property prices pushing more Australians into lenders mortgage insurance, some first home buyers are finding ways to avoid paying for the costly financial product. Exclusive data given to ABC News shows there has been a rise in lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) policies being taken out as the housing market booms. LMI is a lump sum payment of insurance that lenders often expect borrowers without a 20 per cent deposit to pay on top of their loan. It can cost borrowers tens of thousands of dollars, which is often added to their mortgage, meaning the overall cost blows out even further with interest.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-10/lenders-mortgage-insuranc…
# Australia, Home ownership, Tax.A new planning reform could mean the death of England’s high streets
Simon Jenkins The Guardian (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... he summer of 2021 may be remembered for Covid and the withdrawal from Afghanistan. But another lasting and insidious change took place: the death of the high street. By approving the building of residential homes on ailing shopping streets, planning minister Robert Jenrick effectively allowed any shop, restaurant, cafe or business premise in England to become a house. Since almost everywhere houses make more money, this puts every high street under threat.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/10/planning-r…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.Sydney property sellers make paper profits of up to $2.3m after buying the COVID dip
Tawar Razaghi Domain (No paywall)Lucky homeowners who bought property in the uncertainty of the pandemic’s early days are reselling their homes, making huge gains without lifting a finger while there is little else on the market.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sydney-property-sellers-make-pape…
# NSW, Housing market.Tenants' Union NSW welcomes extension of moratorium and an increased Residential Tenancy Support Payment
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)The Tenants' Union NSW welcomes the NSW Government's announcement the current eviction moratorium will continue until 11 November. This sits alongside an increase of an additional $1,500 to the available Residential Tenancy Support Payment, taking the available maximum payment to $4,500 to help reduce rents for struggling households as NSW's lockdown continues. Once the moratorium lifts, transitional protections will be put in place to ensure renters are able to negotiate a reasonable payment plan, and are protected from eviction for any debt built up during the moratorium period.
https://www.tenants.org.au/news/tenants-union-nsw-welcomes-exten…
# Hot topic NSW, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, State Government.‘Insufficient’: Audit Office lashes lack of climate planning in NSW
Peter Hannan The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The NSW Audit Office has released a scathing report on the government’s ability to cope with the effects of a heating climate, finding critical assets and services had yet to conduct risk assessments, such as for the state’s $50 billion public housing portfolio. ... Among the gaps identified was the failure of the Land and Housing Corporation, which holds $50 billion of social housing assets to conduct a review. Projections for “significant increases in the number of heatwaves” mean it will get harder to limit the risk of heatstroke and other poor health outcomes for residents, the report found.
https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/insufficient-a…
# Must read NSW, Public and community housing, Climate change, Health, Planning and development, State Government.