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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Vaccinating the most vulnerable in our society
Mary McCarthy ABC (No paywall)When it comes to vaccinating the most vulnerable, a Sydney hospital has found that taking the vaccines directly to them dramatically increases the uptake. Every Thursday, big crowds of homeless people and people living in social housing gather at a pop-up vaccination clinic in inner Sydney spurred on by the outbreak that is growing around them. (ABC 7.30 Report)
https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/vaccinating-the-most-vulnerable-in-o…
# Video NSW, Public and community housing, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Illawarra tenants,landlords battle over mould in rentals
Desiree Savage (Paywall)Illawarra tenants are copping the blame for hazardous black mould in rentals, but it could be the landlord who is at fault for endangering their health. (Illawarra Mercury)
# NSW, Rent, Repairs, Landlords and agents, Mould.Rent vs buy? Five economists weigh in on what you should do
Jessica Irvine The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)In last week’s column [at: https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/is-it-better-to-rent-or-buy-i-ran-the-numbers-to-find-out-20210813-p58ij6.html], I poked a hornet’s nest by refusing to give the standard financial advice that it is always better to buy a home, rather than “rent-vest” by continuing to rent and investing. I concluded that: “Overall… the rent versus buy decision is one you have to make for yourself, depending on your circumstances.” This week, I took my analysis to five economists to get their thoughts.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/investing/rent-vs-buy-five-economis…
# Australia, Rent, Home ownership.Housing boom to slow rapidly from mid-2022: report
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Homes are taking twice as long to build during the coronavirus pandemic and a national building boom, but analysts warn the sector is facing a hangover as the record level of construction declines. ... [UNSW City Futures Research Centre’s Professor Bill Randolph said] “There isn’t any immigration so there’s no one coming in to pick up the slack ... [Builders are] going to find themselves in trouble, it’s a rational concern. However, he said this could lead to a kneejerk reaction to change the planning system to try to push through more approvals. He encouraged builders to instead consider supporting large-scale social housing investments as it would provide them a good pipeline of work and assist with housing affordability."
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/housing-boom-to-slow-rap…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market, Planning and development.Lloyds aiming to become giant UK landlord
BBC (No paywall)Lloyds is planning to become one of the UK's biggest landlords as it aims to buy 50,000 homes in the next decade. The banking giant is to charge tenants rent as a private landlord under its recently launched Citra Living brand. ... At the launch of Citra Living, Andy Hutchinson, managing director, said the intention was for the brand to work with leading housebuilders to identify sites and buy properties on them for tenants to rent. "As well as ensuring continued support for the housebuilding sector, this will also help to address the increase in demand for rental properties at the same time," he said.
# International, Rent, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Council moves to increase housing supply
(No paywall)Bega Valley Shire Council is seeking feedback on its planning proposal to change minimum site areas for dwellings, multi dwelling housing and residential flat buildings, in order to increase the supply of housing in the shire. Council’s [Director of Community, Environment and Planning, Alice Howe says:] “By removing these barriers, more units and multi-dwelling housing could be built in our medium density residential and mixed-use zones.” (Bega Valley Shire Council)
https://begavalley.nsw.gov.au/cp_themes/default/page.asp?p=DOC-E…
# NSW, Local Government, Planning and development.High demand leading to bidding wars for rental homes
Scripps National (No paywall)From the United States ... People who wanted a house and can't afford it now are turning to rental homes. It's even starting bidding wars in some places with people offering above the listed rent price. (10news San Diego)
https://www.10news.com/news/national/high-demand-leads-to-biddin…
# International, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.HomeBuilder grants blamed for costly construction bottleneck
LIz Hobday The New Daily (No paywall)The cost of building a home is set to rise, with the Housing Industry Association’s chief economist expecting the squeeze on Australia’s construction industry to last well into next year. Tim Reardon has told AAP a shortage of labour and materials has pushed costs higher, while the time to complete a stand-alone dwelling has blown out from six to nine months to about a year. “It will be well into 2022 before the industry starts to return to more normal conditions,” he said.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/property/2021/08/22/homebuild…
# Australia, Housing market.