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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
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Archive
Campsie residents feel the pain over their locked-down suburb’s density push
Angus Thompson The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A COVID-19-struck community with severely limited open space has been asked to review a plan to increase the number of homes by more than 70 per cent while enduring the strictest lockdown the city has seen. The residents of Campsie, a suburb struggling through punitive restrictions in Sydney’s south-west, are set to see more than 6000 new homes and high-rises but only a fragmentary increase in public space in their area under a masterplan that will be put to a planning panel in a week’s time. ... However, residents, who say the area is already “bursting at the seams”, were livid they were given just days’ notice for the opportunity to provide feedback on the revised draft before the plans were assessed by a panel on September 10.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/campsie-residents-feel-the-p…
# NSW, Strata, Coronavirus COVID-19, Families, Planning and development.My best 12 tips and tricks for first-home buyers
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)... if you have decided your goal is to own a home, here are my top tricks and tips to help you. It won’t get everyone a home, but I hope it provides you some food for thought during what can be a stressful experience.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/my-best-12-tips-and-trick…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Owners of Bayview Apartments in Ryde fix defects after developer goes into liquidation
Josh Bavas ABC (No paywall)A group of apartment owners in Sydney's north has had to find millions of dollars to rectify defects in their complex which emerged since it was completed 10 years ago. The developer behind the project — 82-84 Belmore Street Pty Ltd — was liquidated two years after the apartments were built.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-03/bayview-apartments-plague…
# NSW, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.The holiday let boom is causing a crisis for local renters
(No paywall)From United Kingdom ... A sharp rise in properties being let out as holiday homes, has meant that renters around the UK are being priced out of their own local communities, our latest research has found. And renters in Scotland, Wales and the South West of England are the worst hit. ... he popularity of rural and coastal Britain since the pandemic – among holidaymakers and people relocating from cities – is putting unbearable pressure on renters. (Generation Rent)
https://www.generationrent.org/locals_priced_out_of_communities
# International, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Short-term holiday letting.First-home buyers struggle as prices continue to rise
John Collett The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Cashed-up investors are pushing aside first-home buyers as property prices continue to rise. ... loans to investors rose for the ninth month in a row in July to reach their highest level since April 2015. ... Tim Lawless, CoreLogic’s research director, says prices have risen almost 11 times faster than wages over the past year, “creating a more significant barrier to entry for those who don’t yet own a home”.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/first-home-buyers-struggl…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market.Children under 10 being placed in residential care with traumatic outcomes, experts warn
Elizabeth Cramsie ABC (No paywall)When Millie was 11 she was homeless and living at a bus stop. ... Millie said her own experiences in residential care had added to her trauma but it was better than being homeless.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-06/qld-residential-care-chil…
# Australia, Families, Homelessness, Young people.To solve home-ownership struggles, friends Kate and Emily bought a property together
Kate Reid ABC (No paywall)When Kate and Emily realised they were working towards the same goal, the pair started discussing how they could make joint-property ownership work for them.
https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/home-ownership-struggles-solved-…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market.No Cookies
(Paywall)Take it or leave it for picky tenants in housing overhaul. Public housing will move to a “first in, best dressed” system that’s been shown to cut-down on fussy tenants, after 1 in three SA properties were knocked back. (The Advertiser)
https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/new-first-in…
# Australia, Public and community housing.