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
Housing affordability and home ownership
Saul Eslake (No paywall)The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Tax and Revenue is conducting an inquiry into Housing Affordability and Supply. Saul Eslake says this is an issue about which I’ve written and spoken at considerable length for more than thirty years. Check his charts and discussion. ... Here's an example: Although ‘negative gearing’ isn’t as attractive a strategy as it once was ... the most recent data from the Australian Taxation Office shows that over 1.3 million individual taxpayers (12% of the total) were still doing it in 2018-19 (Chart 4). They, moreover, are disproportionately high-income earners: 22% of all taxpayers in the top tax bracket were negatively-geared property investors, compared with just 8.6% of those with taxable incomes of $180,000 or less. ... He concludes: For all the crocodile tears which politicians of all persuasions routinely shed about the difficulties facing those wishing to get their first foot on the property ladder, deep down they know that there are far more people who already own at least one property (and who therefore have a very strong interest in policies which result in continued property price inflation) than there are who don’t, but who would like to ... And, sadly, there’s no reason to think that political calculus is going to change. Nor, therefore, are the housing policies which have resulted in created the housing system which Australia has today.
https://www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=4938c555-d68f-4d4b-…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax.Some properties ‘uninsurable’: Price hikes ahead as Queensland takes the heat
Tony Moore The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Queenslanders face the bulk of Australia’s insurance premium hikes because of the state’s susceptibility to a warming climate, bushfires and localised flooding. Six regions - including the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and Moreton Bay- are among the top 10 Australian locations for escalating insurance costs linked to fires, soil erosion, beach erosion and inundation from rivers and oceans. The rising insurance costs scenario is contained in Infrastructure Australia’s 2021 Australian Infrastructure Plan released on Friday.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/some-properties…
# Australia, Climate change, Tax.Wilcannia gets COVID repreive as motorhomes arrive to form isolation hub
ABC (No paywall)The promised motorhomes to help the people of Wilcannia to safely isolate during the COVID-19 outbreak have arrived in the small town in far west NSW. The 30 vehicles, which have been set up at the town's showground, will provide temporary accommodation for the close contacts of anyone infected with the coronavirus. It is hoped the arrangement will reduce the transmission of the virus in the community of about 800 people. Concerns had been raised about residents' ability to safely isolate from infected family members in overcrowded homes.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-05/nsw-wilcannia-motorhomes-…
# NSW, Aboriginal renters, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Health.China's property bubble may be about to burst, and it could cost Australia dearly
Ian Verrender ABC (No paywall)China's transformation from an agrarian-based economy into an urbanised industrial powerhouse over the past 40 years has been achieved on a scale and speed never before witnessed in history. With the introduction of a free market came the opportunity for fabulous wealth from real estate as millions of farm workers flocked to newly built cities. Thus began the rise of the property moguls. Just as in the West, real estate speculation has become a national pastime as prices have gone into orbit. The end result has been much the same. Sky high rents, unaffordable housing and younger generations seething that they have been locked out of the market. ... How does this affect us. That's easy. Our raw materials have played an instrumental role in China's property boom. All those apartment towers require a huge amount of steel. In fact, property developers account for around half of all China's iron ore demand.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-06/china-property-bubble-may…
# Australia, Housing affordability, Housing market, International, Landlords and agents.Advocates say government’s women’s summit must address housing ‘crisis’
Josh Butler The New Daily (No paywall)Social agencies are pleading with the federal government to take a housing “crisis” more seriously, after the issue of emergency accommodation for domestic violence survivors only got a “fleeting reference” in the federal women’s safety summit this week. Many thousands of women each year are left with little option but to return to their abusers or become homeless, a situation that social advocates say must be urgently rectified. The federal Labor opposition has slammed the government for having “failed to listen” to survivors of family violence by not making the issue a higher priority.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2021/09/06/womens-summit-housing…
# Hot topic Australia, Domestic violence, Homelessness, Housing market, Women.Mission Australia’s Common Ground Camperdown homelessness service in lockdown after four COVID cases
(No paywall)A six-storey residential building in Sydney’s inner west for those experiencing homelessness has been placed into lockdown after four tenants tested positive for COVID-19. Mission Australia confirmed to 7NEWS.com.au that its Common Ground facility in Camperdown, which includes 104 units, was placed into lockdown at 8am and will remain so for two weeks until Wednesday, September 15. (7news) You will find the same story at: [https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/social-housing-estate-forced-lockdown]
https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/mission-australi…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Health.Vacancy rates in Melbourne rise as lockdown bites, while Sydney stays stable
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)It’s a tale of two cities forged by the latest COVID-19 lockdowns, with the vacancy rate in the rental property market jumping abruptly in Melbourne but remaining stable in Sydney.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/vacancy-rates-1085115/?utm_campai…
# Australia, Rent, Housing market.The housing rocket ride set to splutter
Michael Pascoe The New Daily (No paywall)With the usual caveat that forecasting is a mug’s game, the housing price crystal ball is turning darkly cloudy.
Not today and not tomorrow but within an imaginable period, the fundamentals of weak population growth and affordability concerns are getting set to overcome the effects of cheap money, FOMO (fear of missing out) and TINA (there is no alternative). That’s the lesson to be drawn from combining two lots of housing data published this week – CoreLogic’s home value index and SQM Research’s national property listings.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/09/02/michael-p…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Housing affordability, Housing market.