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
Price gap between units and houses in Canberra the largest in the country
Antoinette Radford ABC (No paywall)The national capital now holds another title: the city with the largest price gap between units and houses in Australia. According to the latest research released by property analyst group CoreLogic, the price gap between an apartment and a house in Canberra is 74.8 per cent, the largest of all capital cities.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-29/act-biggest-price-gaps-un…
# Australia, Housing market.Don’t let FOMO rush you into the property market
Nicole Pedersen-McKinnon The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Do your utmost to limit your borrowings. And, most importantly, remember that the time to buy is when you are ready – not when rushed.
https://www.smh.com.au/money/borrowing/don-t-let-fomo-rush-you-i…
# Australia, Home ownership, Housing market.Eviction crisis looms after Biden and Congress fail to extend Covid ban
The Guardian (No paywall)Tenants saddled with months of back rent were facing the end of the federal eviction moratorium on Saturday, a move that could lead to millions being forced from their homes as the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant spreads. The Biden administration said on Thursday it would allow the nationwide ban to expire, saying it wanted to extend it but its hands were tied after the supreme court signaled in June that it wouldn’t be extended beyond the end of July without congressional action. House lawmakers on Friday failed to pass a bill to extend the moratorium even a few months. Some Democrats had wanted it extended until the end of the year. Also, check out this account of the samee story in The New York Times entitled: 'Eviction Freeze Set to Lapse as Biden Housing Aid Effort Lags' by Glenn Thrush, Matthew Goldstein and Conor Dougherty at [https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/us/politics/eviction-moratorium-biden-housing-aid.html]
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/31/eviction-morator…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market.Tasmania's building regulator doesn't have enough power, according to home owners left dealing with defects
Annah Fromberg ABC (No paywall)Charlie Henty built his dream home on the outskirts of Launceston in 2015, but six years on he is still waiting to have defects repaired. ... Mr Henty said he had tried to engage with the building company, Elysium Builders in Tasmania, to fix the problems. This resulted in the cladding being replaced, but Mr Henty says it made the problem worse. So he approached the Master Builders Association for help, lodged a complaint with Tasmania's Justice Department, went through third-party mediation, and obtained independent reports on the problems, at his own expense. He said after going around in circles, the builder eventually stopped responding to emails and calls. Mr Henty was advised he had no recourse other than to take the builder to court.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-01/tasmanian-building-defect…
# International, Housing market, Minimum habitability standards.Millions of renters face eviction and homelessness: 3 essential reads about the CDC’s expiring moratorium
Bryan Keogh The Conversation (No paywall)From the United States ... The White House and city officials across the country are scrambling to avoid an eviction crisis. The federal housing eviction moratorium that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put in place in September 2020 expires on July 31, 2021. After that, millions of Americans who owe tens of billions of dollars in unpaid rent will lose that protection and may face eviction and a loss of their homes. Meanwhile, a group of landlords is suing the U.S. government to recover damages it says its members suffered from not being able to evict tenants who didn’t pay rent.
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Federal Government, Housing market, Landlords and agents.Vale John Mant – supporter of TAAS
Leo Patterson Ross Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)In 1993 John Mant was the author of a report that Robert Webster, the new NSW Housing Minister from the National Party, had requested to examine how client services should be delivered. At the time, the Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services (TAAS) had been defunded and for some years had been operating as a primarily volunteer network. ... The Tenants’ Union had a proposed model of tenants' services into the future which Mant was generally positive towards and Robert Webster subsequently refunded tenants' services. The Tenants’ Advice and Advocacy Program was implemented in 1994 and has received bi-partisan support to this day. Thank you John Mant for helping this to happen. [But] between 2003 and this year there has been gradual reduction in the capacity of the services as funding hasn’t kept up with the cost of providing the services. This has seen growing frustration amongst tenants who aren’t able to receive the support they need. In great news though this year for the first time in a long time the services aren’t facing an effective funding cut. With the support of Minister Kevin Anderson, also of the National Party, an additional $1million per year has been allocated to the Tenants’ Advice and Advocacy Program in the NSW budget bringing this support for renters to just over $13million a year.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/vale-john-mant-supporter-taas
# NSW, Rent, Planning and development, State Government, Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services.‘List of enemies’: Affordable housing advocates say Labor abandoned them
Rob Harris The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The nation’s peak organisation on affordability and secure housing for Australians on low incomes has accused federal Labor of rejoining a “list of enemies” against increasing home-ownership in favour of benefiting wealthy landlords. National Shelter, which campaigns to improve housing access for low-income earners, has joined with several social groups to savage the federal opposition’s decision for scrapping key tax policies as it seeks to slimline its policy platform ahead of the next election. ... National Shelter chief executive Adrian Pisarski said by ditching its commitment to reforming negative gearing Labor had “abandoned” would-be homeowners and low-income households wanting to buy homes. “It took 15 years of campaigning by many to get the ALP to find a spine on CGT and negative gearing and commit to helping reduce house price inflation,” Mr Pisarski said. “This is a sad day for housing reform.” Read Jessica Irvine's 'Opinion' piece. She writes: 'By far the greatest disappointment is the abandonment of the policy to slash the discount on capital gains tax for property investors. It was less talked about than negative gearing, but it would likely have done most of the heavy lifting in cooling investor housing demand. ' Check it out at: [https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/young-autralians-should-score-labor-s-housing-policy-gymnastics-harshly-20210728-p58dse.html]
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/list-of-enemies-affordab…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.Federal Labor dumps negative gearing policy, backs tax cuts
Rob Harris The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Federal Labor has formally dumped its contentious negative gearing policy and officially dropped its opposition to the federal government’s stage three tax cuts for high income earners. Anthony Albanese’s shadow cabinet agreed to the position after more than 18 month of fierce internal debate, the final position of which is likely to be controversial within the party’s membership base. Read Rob Harris's follow up article at: [https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/a-sore-point-in-the-ranks-inside-labor-s-tax-cut-decision-20210726-p58d3o.html] Read The Guardian's Katharine Murphy's story on same issue at: [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jul/26/labor-agrees-to-keep-coalition-stage-three-tax-cuts-and-dump-negative-gearing-changes]
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/labor-dumps-negative-gea…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Landlords and agents, Tax.