Category Archives: Housing

NSW government paid for homeless man to be sent back to New Zealand instead of offering housing

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Local council and state government attempting to move on residents living in an encampment by the river in Wagga Wagga

The New South Wales government paid for a homeless man in Wagga Wagga to be sent back to New Zealand instead of offering him temporary accommodation, in an attempt to move on residents living in an encampment by a river.

The local council and state government have been attempting to clear out the encampment for several months after a newborn baby died in May when its mother gave birth to twins in a tent.

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‘Small price to pay’: The young homeowners welcoming falling house prices even as it hurts them

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Some buyers say they are ready to absorb the fallout of housing weakness if it means boosting home ownership across the board

Falling property prices have come at the worst possible time for Alex Hogan and his partner. They are now weighing up whether they can afford to have another child.

Locked out of the established housing market, the Queensland couple resorted to buying a block of land to build a family home.

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Australia’s first home buyers are still taking out loans as property investors step back, data shows

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Exclusive: New entrants the only cohort making more loan applications amid interest rate rises and tax changes, mortgage broker says

First home buyers are still taking out a large number of loans, with government backing, even as investors step back from Australia’s property market.

New entrants are now the only cohort applying for more loans than they were in June, according to new data from the mortgage broker network Loan Market.

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Burnham expected to give mayors new powers over local planning decisions

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Move would allow mayors to greenlight large-scale developments and have more say on national housing funding

Andy Burnham is expected to give mayors new powers to take control of local planning decisions and greenlight large-scale developments in proposals to be presented next week.

The move would allow mayors to “call in” the decisions and direct councils to take them forward or refuse them.

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London flat where boy fell to death could have had more safeguards, inquest told

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Aalim Ahmed, five, fell from 15th-floor window at tower block family had asked to be moved out of, court hears

An inquest into the death of a five-year-old boy who fell from a 15th-floor window has heard that more measures could have been taken to make it safer.

Aalim Ahmed, who was autistic, died when he fell from a kitchen window at a residential block in Plaistow, east London. His father, Makail Ahmed, rushed from the top floor temporary social housing flat and discovered his body shortly before 6am on 16 May 2024.

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Burnham pledges to get thousands of rough sleepers off streets for Christmas – UK politics live

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PM promises to mount ‘Covid-style campaign’ to get homeless people off streets in winter

New Scottish government policy on datacentres marks a “real departure”, the minister in charge has said.

Changes announced earlier this week mean the government has to be notified about applications to build datacentres above a 50 megawatt capacity, PA reported.

Roughly half the savings come from having to build much less grid, fewer pylons and less cables carving up the countryside. The rest of the savings come from lower wholesale prices, lower balancing costs and subsidies.

Basically, we’d pay a lot less money to switch wind farms off when it’s too windy, or for back up when it’s not windy enough.

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Loosening of planning rules in England to allow more new homes near stations

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Angela Rayner to launch guidance for ‘default yes’ on developments near transport hubs, including on green belt sites

Thousands more homes could be built within 10 minutes of transport hubs, including on green belt sites, under a loosening of planning policy announced by Angela Rayner on Monday.

The housing secretary will set out changes to national planning guidance for England that will include an order for councils to have a “default yes” approach to housing developments that are within a reasonable walking distance of well-connected train and tram stations.

Stronger support in principle for development, meaning a more explicit presumption in favour of building in sustainable locations.

Pubs will get protection from being turned into housing or offices with developers having to prove there is no reasonable prospect of keeping a pub as a going concern, including evidence that it was marketed for sale for at least a year.

A requirement for at least 40% of homes to be accessible on bigger developments and stronger protections for community facilities.

Stronger support for growth and infrastructure including support for AI growth zones and datacentres.

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Lending to property investors falls sharply in ‘tiny’ step towards fairer housing market in Australia, expert says

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ABS data shows an almost 9% slump in new lending to investors after three interest rate hikes this year

In what one economist is describing as a “tiny step” toward a fairer housing market after decades of bad policy, property investors are shying away from established homes, and putting money into new builds instead, new data shows.

New lending to property investors fell sharply in the three months to June, slumping almost 9%, ABS data showed, while the number of total new home loans dropped by 5.4% in the June quarter.

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Thursday briefing: What happens after an asylum hotel closes?

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In today’s newsletter: With more sites closed and more lives upended, a look at the rhetoric and reality of where asylum seekers should be housed

Good morning. This week, immigration minister Anna Turley announced, with minor fanfare, the government will stop using a further 13 hotels to house asylum seekers across the country.

It brings the total shut this year to 44, in pursuit of Labour’s manifesto pledge, now reiterated by Andy Burnham, to cease hotel use completely by the end of this parliament. Doing so would remove what have become highly visible symbols of an increasingly toxic debate about migration. Less than 160 to go, according to the Home Office.

Solar eclipse | Wednesday’s eclipse began in Russia’s remote Arctic north, going on to trace an arc over much of western Europe. From the UK to northern Italy, tens of millions of people turned to the sky as the light of the setting sun was almost completely blocked out.

UK news | Nurses are collapsing during shifts amid “inhumane and impossible” conditions caused by extreme heat, their union has warned, as Andy Burnham promised to grapple with “the bigger questions” of climate adaptation.

US politics | Karoline Leavitt will step down as White House press secretary at the end of August, Donald Trump announced.

Science | Astronomers claim to have discovered a new kind of cosmic object, a black hole “star”, which is the size of the entire solar system and glows with a brilliant red light.

Middle East | Israeli militants have besieged two Palestinian families in their homes since the weekend, aiming to take over their properties in the West Bank village of Qusra through a campaign of terror.

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‘We cannot magic up more water’: the supply problems putting housing targets in England at risk

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Council leaders say crumbling infrastructure and lack of water are jeopardising government’s plans for new homes

The government’s housebuilding agenda is hitting the stark reality of a lack of water and crumbling infrastructure across the east and south-east of England.

Half the country was declared to be in serious drought this week, for the second consecutive year, with the Environment Agency warning of dire consequences for the economy, environment and wildlife.

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Australian house prices are falling but are still almost double what they were a decade ago

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The average dwelling price has risen to more than 17 years of a typical household’s disposable income

House prices have dropped across several Australian capital cities, with major banks predicting falls of 2% to 3% by the end of the year.

But after a decade of accelerating house prices, this wouldn’t make a significant dent in housing affordability.

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Higher-earning Australians flocking to 5% first home deposit scheme with some borrowers earning over $200,000

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Exclusive: Economists warn Labor’s removal of caps could be pushing up prices as support flows to people in better financial positions

Most Australian first home buyers are using the government’s 5% deposit scheme, with one in three new participants earning more than the scheme’s previous cap for high income earners.

The influx of high income earners into the first home guarantee program, economists warn, has pushed up property prices by increasing buying capacity for people who would have bought anyway.

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Cornwall van dwellers face homelessness amid council crackdown

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Half of county’s planning infringement notices target caravans in fields, fuelling eviction fears for vulnerable people

People living in caravans and horseboxes on farms in Cornwall because they can’t afford or find a house to rent are facing homelessness after a crackdown by the council.

Cornwall council recently announced that it was one of the top five authorities in England for enforcing infringements of planning regulations. Half of those notices, it said, were served on caravans in agricultural fields.

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Cold feet and cooling prices: Australia’s property market is transforming – and first home buyers aren’t biting

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Exclusive: Data shows buyers are not rushing to get into the market, despite lower prices and less competition

First home buyers are starting to step back and investor demand is slumping in all areas except new property, as Australia’s housing market enters a downturn.

Research shows the market is transforming, nearly two months on from a third consecutive interest rate rise and sweeping tax reforms.

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House prices fall in four capital cities as Sydney values drop nearly $50,000 this year

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More than half of homes taken to auction not selling while median property price in Adelaide started to slide in June

House prices are now falling in four capital cities with the Adelaide market beginning to slide in June, while Sydney values have dropped by $48,000 since the start of the year.

Data from Cotality, released on Wednesday, showed Sydney and Melbourne recorded their biggest one-month decline in values since August 2022, falling 1.2% and 1% respectively.

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Parliament has been getting frosty as winter closes in – but Labor may make one more gamble before the break

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As Labor pushes on with reforms, the Coalition must decide whether to join in the parliamentary deal-making

It’s the last week of parliament before the winter break, and not a minute too soon; tensions have been running a little high lately.

The lower house speaker, Milton Dick, has been yeeting MPs mere moments into question time and accused Angus Taylor of “demeaning” the parliament by calling Anthony Albanese a liar; Andrew Hastie claimed One Nation “has declared war on me, so they shall have war”; Labor has been goading the Coalition and its media “cheer squad” for opposing the budget; the Greens hate Labor’s NDIS bill; and people in the Coalition seem to be mad at everyone, including themselves.

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St Kilda pier wins peak Victorian architecture award as judges praise playful and ‘deeply civic’ design

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State government project among range of works celebrated for community-centred design that goes beyond utility

The reimagined St Kilda pier has added more accolades to its burgeoning trophy cabinet, taking out some of the top gongs at the 2026 Australian Institute of Architects’ Victorian awards.

The $53m Victorian government project redesigned by Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, alongside Site Office Landscape Architecture and AW Maritime, took home the Victorian architecture medal on Friday, the award given to the most outstanding project of the year.

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Australian housing was already cooling before the budget – but how cold it gets depends on two key factors

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Most economists believe the chronic undersupply of homes will eventually push prices higher once interest rates ease and the tax changes are priced in

The government’s property tax changes have become one of the defining political issues of Labor’s second term, drawing fierce criticism from opponents who argue they represent an “assault on aspiration” that will destroy home values.

In the three weeks after the negative gearing and capital gains tax changes were revealed in the 12 May budget, housing data has begun to show how they may affect Australia’s property market. Here’s what the data shows, and what could happen next.

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One Nation, six farcical explanations and no clearer understanding of its housing policy

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Hanson’s party is leading in the polls, but it has a long way to go before being recognised as a serious political outfit

When sent out to do a cleanup job, it usually helps to not make the mess even worse.

It took One Nation six separate attempts over nearly 24 hours to clarify the basic details of their policy on foreign ownership of housing. Between Thursday night and Friday afternoon, the story turned from bizarre to farcical, with attempts to clarify the policy just making the situation murkier as Australians watched:

a Barnaby Joyce interview;

a quick do-over on Sky News on Thursday;

a Pauline Hanson social media update on Friday morning;

a Sean Bell interview, again on Sky, on Friday;

and then a 2GB spot;

before a written press release from Bell on Friday afternoon

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Yes Australia’s house prices may fall – but the decades of unchecked property price growth were the true policy failure

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Instead of relying on tax-enhanced speculation, investors must now look at established properties based on actual profitability – leaving space for first home buyers

For decades, Australia’s property market has been defined by relentless price rises, reinforcing the old adage that real estate investment is “as safe as houses”.

There’s now a wrinkle in that wisdom.

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