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
'We want another homeless hotel - and we can make it work'
Simon Maybin BBC (No paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Thousands of rough sleepers were given rooms in hotels as part of the UK's emergency response to coronavirus during the first lockdown. The unprecedented effort was described by some as a silver lining to the dark clouds of Covid-19. This is the story of the highs and lows in one of those hotels, which has just closed its doors to homeless people after 14 months.
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.Private landlords are losing billions. Should we keep picking up the tab?
David Hayward The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)What is top of mind when you hear that landlords are losing squillions? I suspect a goodly share of you will think of that old favourite, public housing. It’s where all the no-hopers end up, isn’t it, and it is run by public servants, so it’s got to run at a whopping loss? ... [But] Australian Taxation Office data released last week had some eye-catching numbers on the private rental sector that points to a different conclusion. In 2018-19, the private rental stock ran at a loss amounting to over $3 billion. Yes, loss. If we exclude those that at least break even, the losses climb to a humungous $12.8 billion. ... Those rental losses bring with them a giant cost to federal tax revenues, mainly due to negative gearing, which allows landlords to deduct losses from their rental properties from taxable income derived elsewhere. The biggest single landlord cost is interest on debt, which amounted to an incredible $24 billion last year. Then there’s the $4.5 billion the federal government spends each year on rent assistance for 1.3 million low-income private tenants. Added to this is the 50 per cent discount on capital gains, which is worth a lot in these days of rapid house price growth. When you tot it all up, we taxpayers are paying buckets to private landlords ...
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/private-landlords-ar…
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing, Rent, Federal Government, Tax.Sirius penthouse sold for $35 million to Point Piper buyer
Lucy Macken Domain (No paywall)Just three years after the last of the housing commission residents moved out of the landmark Sirius building at The Rocks, one of the penthouses has sold for $35 million to a buyer from Point Piper. ... Architect and Save Our Sirius spokesman, Ben Peake, [said] “To think, just 40 years ago this is where we placed our most vulnerable and our low-income workers, and in just 40 years our attitude to housing has changed so much that people have been forced out of their homes; a community destroyed so that private interests could make a quick buck out of Sydney’s hotly inflated real estate market.”
https://www.domain.com.au/news/sirius-penthouse-sold-for-35-mill…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Housing market, State Government.The unlikely friendship between Louise Pleming and Brian Turton forged by a shared love of tennis
Susan Chenery and Jennifer Feller ABC (No paywall)Louise Pleming was just finishing her regular stint at Canice's Kitchen near Sydney's Kings Cross, a community centre that supports the homeless when an intimidatingly large man recognised her from the television. He asked, "Why aren't you in Paris?" It was a "sliding doors" moment. ... He was sleeping under the grandstand near the Rushcutters Bay tennis courts. He was already there, good to go. It was raining that morning, but he didn't have a mobile phone for her to cancel. "Here's this guy standing on the court, pouring rain, racquet, tennis balls and he's ready to play," Louise remembers.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-14/how-brian-and-louise-are-…
# NSW, Homelessness, Personal stories.Reimagining a disadvantaged suburb
Lexi Metherell ABC (No paywall)This week, we are taking a look at a trend that's been happening in public housing for some time - the breaking up of housing estates, and moving to models of "mixed tenures", where public and private housing is scattered together. We're focusing on the suburb of Claymore, in southwestern Sydney, one of Australia's most impoverished suburbs. It's home to around 2,600 people, and in the 2016 census the median household income was recorded at $700 - less than half that in the rest of the state. ... We look at the community's mixed feelings about Claymore and its future. You may listen to the audio at: [https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/reimagining-a-disadvantaged-suburb/13387052]. (The World Today)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-16/claymore-affordable-housi…
# Audio NSW, Public and community housing, Planning and development.Liberal MPs suggest radical plans to tackle housing affordability crisis
Shane Wright and Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Liberal MPs are demanding the federal government consider radical plans to bring the runaway housing market under control after new figures showed the value of the nation’s homes soared by a record $450 billion in three months. ... Sydney MP John Alexander said some of his own government’s policies were feeding into dysfunctional property market
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/liberal-mps-suggest-radi…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Home ownership, Housing affordability, Housing market, Tax.The San Francisco homes that prove why NSW stamp duty changes won’t work
Benjamin Ward The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)With Sydney house prices soaring, attention has returned to NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet’s proposed stamp duty reform. The Treasurer used recent price rises as evidence that we “need a fairer and equitable system in place” and last Friday released a progress paper that predicted the reform could lead to a 6 per cent jump in homeownership. The Treasurer should be commended for pursuing the state’s biggest tax reform in decades. But to achieve the fairness and equity that the Treasurer describes, we should be wary of the path proposed to transition to the new land tax.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-san-francisco-homes-that-pro…
# NSW, Home ownership, Housing market, Tax.‘It starts to add up’: renters charged fees to pay rent as real estate agents outsource collection
Michael McGowan The Guardian (No paywall)Tenants are effectively being charged fees to pay their own rent by real estate firms that outsource payment processing to third-party companies, a practice advocacy groups say has become increasingly common despite laws meant to curtail its use. You can check out Scott Pape's article at: [https://www.barefootinvestor.com/articles/rental-rewards]
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/17/it-starts…
# Australia, Rent, Landlords and agents.