Category Archives: Housing

Top Chinese developer’s financial woes cast shadow over Australian property market

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Huge housing estates developed by Risland on the fringes of Sydney and Melbourne could be affected as shares of parent company Country Garden plunge

The financial problems of one of China’s biggest property companies, Country Garden, could reverberate in the Australian property market, where its subsidiary Risland Australia is developing two massive housing estates on the fringes of Sydney and Melbourne.

Delays in the projects or a corporate failure would have significant impacts on the amount of new housing coming on to the market during a dire affordability crisis.

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Fears many Australians will abandon home insurance as premiums jump 50% in high-risk areas

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Median premiums across all areas rose 28% in the year to March and actuaries warn climate disasters are driving them to unaffordable heights

Home insurance premiums have climbed by 50% in high-risk parts of Australia as global heating increases the frequency and cost of climate disasters, a new report has found.

The Actuaries Institute’s research on home insurance affordability and funding for flood costs, released on Monday, found median home insurance premiums rose by 28% in the year to March, sitting at an average of $1,894 across all states.

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NSW minister concedes social housing situation ‘desperate’ as waitlist for most in need doubles in a decade

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Exclusive: Rose Jackson announces monthly release of social housing data, with first tranche showing ‘priority’ applications soaring

New South Wales’s priority social housing waitlist has doubled in less than a decade and surged by 1,000 to 7,573 over the past year, as wait times continue to rise across the state.

New data from the department of communities and justice, to be released on Friday, will reveal the extent of a crisis that the housing minister, Rose Jackson, has conceded is “desperate” and “confronting”.

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Mother begged Oldham council to move her and late son from damp house, inquest hears

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Court had earlier been told the death of Luke Brooks, 27, in 2022 had been provisionally linked to mould exposure in freezing home

A mother begged a council for help to move her family out of a privately rented house that was freezing and had chronic damp and mould, which she believes killed her son, an inquest has heard.

The hearing resumed on Monday into the death of 27-year-old Luke Brooks, from Oldham, who died in October 2022. The inquest in Rochdale has previously heard that Brooks died after developing an acute respiratory illness which was provisionally linked to mould exposure.

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Australia politics live: NSW government considers aerial shooting of wild horses in Kosciuszko

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State government seeking feedback on proposed amendments to park’s wild horse management plan. Follow the day’s news live

Voice being weaponised politically and to help ‘raise funds’: Andrew Gee

Andrew Gee had more to say about that:

I think that at the moment the voice is being weaponised politically for a number of reasons, and obviously, it helps raise funds and I know this because I’m still getting the emails saying, ‘the voice is terrible, please give some money’.

They’re doing it I think to shore up leadership positions. I think they’re doing it to just have some ground to fight on. But ultimately, I think, the hope that this is the pathway to victory is a bankrupt hope.

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Past and present public servants to be investigated – as it happened

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Home prices to keep rising despite higher rates: REA

National property prices are expected to increase by up to five per cent in 2023, having already lifted more than two per cent since the start of the year, AAP reports.

We saw price increases despite rising interest rates and reduced borrowing capacities and anticipate moderate price increases to continue over the coming months.

Don’t wait for a flare to rise from Canberra, until you get started.

The campaign has truly begun. Get out there, talk to your family, talk to your friends.

This is your moment.

I urge you to campaign for a future you want to see.

We will win this referendum, conversation by conversation. Silence doesn’t make history, people make history.

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Greens decry property tax breaks costing 78 times what Labor proposes to spend on social housing

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Max Chandler-Mather says magnitude of the tax concessions ‘morally reprehensible’ as stoush continues over housing crisis

The value of tax breaks given to property investors is 78 times the promised minimum spend on social housing under the Albanese government’s flagship fund, new data released by the Greens shows.

Max Chandler-Mather, the Greens’ housing spokesperson, described the magnitude of the tax concessions as “morally reprehensible” as the minor party digs in on opposing the housing Australia future fund (Haff) in its current form.

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Homes proposal effort ‘to line’ Duke of Northumberland’s pockets, inquiry told

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Ralph Percy lost an application in 2021 to build 80 flats on part of his Grade I-listed Syon Park estate

An attempt by the Duke of Northumberland to replace allotments with dozens of new homes on his west London estate is simply an effort to line his “already deep pockets”, a public inquiry has heard.

Ralph Percy, the 12th Duke of Northumberland, lost an application in October 2021 to build 80 flats on part of his Grade I-listed Syon Park estate after the council received more than 900 objections from local residents to the plans.

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Labor to meet Greens over housing bill – as it happened

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RFS predicts severe bushfire season to come

Firefighters are scrambling to catch up on bushfire preparations as NSW braces for a hot summer, AAP reports.

The No 1 factor for that not going ahead was the weather conditions, the rain, the flooding, that’s meant the crews weren’t able to get out and do that important work in communities.

There is plenty more to be done and this boost in mitigation personnel will enable even more vital work to be undertaken.

This is a tragedy. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the Australian Defence Force personnel on board. All were from the 6th Aviation Regiment based at Holsworthy army barracks in Sydney and valuable members of our community.

Our thoughts are also with those who served alongside these four young men – their friends and colleagues in uniform – and the broader defence community.

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Step to riches? Disused stairwell in London could be yours for just £20,000

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Estate agents selling Twickenham ‘property’ believe it could have development potential

If climbing the property ladder seems stressful to you, why not consider taking the stairs?

A disused four-storey stairwell at the back of a branch of Starbucks in south-west London has become the latest peculiar piece of property to go on sale in London’s feverish housing market.

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Properties worth more than $25bn were bought with cash in Australia’s three biggest states in early 2023

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Many cash purchases were made in regional areas of NSW, Victoria and Queensland as buyers downsized to less expensive housing

More than one in four transactions for dwellings or land is settled with cash in Australia’s three most-populous states, with buyers largely unaffected by higher interest rates, data group Pexa said.

Many of the cash purchases (those paid for in full without a loan) were made in regional parts of New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, often by retirees or others downsizing to less expensive properties. Cash purchases for foreign students or recent migrants also make up a sizeable share of sales in inner-city areas.

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Marles says aircrew ‘yet to be found’ after military helicopter crash – as it happened

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Four feared dead after Australian army helicopter crashes into waters off Hamilton Island. This blog is now closed

Tasmania police use cadaver dog in search for missing Belgian tourist

AAP reports Tasmania police hope an interstate cadaver dog can reveal where a missing Belgian tourist ended up after weeks of fruitless searches.

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Greens insist they won’t back down on housing bill despite Albanese’s double dissolution threat

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Minor party plans to door-knock Labor electorates in a ‘national day of action’ as it continues to call on the prime minister to include rent relief in package

The Greens remain defiant in the face of Anthony Albanese’s double-dissolution threat over his housing bill, insisting the minor party will continue to push for rent relief to be part of the package.

Queensland Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather said the party remained willing to negotiate but would not be pushed into supporting Labor’s $5bn housing Australia future fund (Haff).

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Birmingham says opposition doesn’t ‘fear’ early election – as it happened

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Housing bill squabble to bring back possibility of double dissolution election

Parliament resumes next week after a five-week hiatus over winter, which means all the squabbles and fights we left in June are starting to whirl up again – chief among them housing. As Daniel Hurst reported this morning, Labor is going to bring back its housing bill to the house in October, where it will pass. Once it hits the Senate, things get a little more dicey. If it’s rejected by the Greens, who so far aren’t seeing what they want from the government, then the government has a double dissolution trigger.

The early indications are that there was a 50m exclusion zone around the deceased.

All efforts had been made to cover the body but at certain stages of the forensic examination, that body did need to be uncovered so the forensic police could do their work for the coroner and unfortunately, those children did walk past.

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Khan dismisses Sunak’s attack on his housebuilding record in London as ‘desperate nonsense’ – UK politics live

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Mayor of London hits back at prime minister over ‘pathetic gesture politics’

Rishi Sunak has failed to give his full backing to Sir Howard Davies, chairman of NatWest, in interviews this morning, PA Media reports.

PA says that Sunak did not back calls for the resignation of Davies in a pooled interview this morning – but also that Sunak would not say whether he had confidence in him.

What I said right at the start of this was that it wasn’t right for people to be deprived of basic services because of banking, because of their views.

This isn’t about any one individual, it’s about values – do you believe in free speech and not to be discriminated against because of your legally held views?

As a result of this policy, a dozen classrooms of children, including some of the most traumatised and vulnerable children in the world, have gone missing and, sickeningly for us, 50 children are still missing from the hotel used in Brighton and Hove.

Importantly the high court also makes clear that the home secretary already has the power to require local authorities across the country to take children into foster care via a statutory rota system called the national transfer scheme.

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Australians lodge almost 100,000 banking and finance complaints in year

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Record number of complaints caused by rising financial stress combined with relentless battle against scammers

Australians lodged a record 96,987 complaints against financial institutions over the past year, as rising financial stress combined with a relentless battle against scammers to trigger a steep rise.

The increase was partly fuelled by a 27% rise in banking and finance-related disputes in 2022-23, including a significant number of complaints from those experiencing financial difficulty.

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Sydney leads Australia’s house price rebound with $500 a day ‘hyper-growth’

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Domain data shows fastest national rise since late 2021 and all capitals bar Canberra in recovery mode

Australia’s home price rebound quickened in the June quarter, lifting house values at the fastest rate since late 2021. For Sydney, median house prices rose $500 a day during the first half of 2023, returning to “hyper-growth”, Domain said.

Since last December’s nadir, house prices across capital cities have risen $34,000, or 3.4%, clawing back slightly more than the $60,000 lost during 2022.

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Sunak’s tweet associating Labour with ‘criminal gangs’ labelled ‘desperate and pathetic’ by shadow cabinet minister – UK politics live

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Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham and shadow environment secretary, criticises prime minister for tweet about Labour and immigration law firms

Michael Gove has been accused of showing how “disjointed” the government’s net zero strategy is by Greenpeace UK.

In a statement released after Gove’s media interview round this morning, in which the levelling up secretary appeared to firm up the government’s commitment to at least one green target, while signalling that others might be relaxed (see 10.04am), Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s director of policy, said:

Michael Gove has demonstrated how disjointed the government’s new strategy is. If ministers genuinely want to help lower costs for households, they should be doing everything in their power to switch our homes, energy and transport systems away from expensive, climate-wrecking fossil fuels and run them instead on clean technology and cheap renewables.

Mr Gove is right to reaffirm the government’s commitment to ending the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030 – and Sunak should now do the same, whilst making the transition as easy as possible for people with extensive charging infrastructure and the promised mandate on manufacturers. But allowing more oil and gas drilling, delaying the phase-out of gas boilers and giving landlords longer to insulate the homes of renters will only keep bills high and continue to fan the flames of climate change.

The leaders discussed recent developments on the battlefield and the continued progress by Ukrainian forces despite the challenging conditions. The prime minister added that he was appalled by the devastation caused by recent Russian attacks on Odesa.

Discussing the Black Sea grain initiative, the leaders agreed on the importance of ensuring grain was able to be exported from Ukraine to reach international markets. The prime minister said the UK was working closely with Turkey on restoring the grain deal, and we would continue to use our role as chair of the UN security council to further condemn Russia’s behaviour.

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Australia news live: Morrison ‘in complete denial’ over robodebt, Shorten says as former PM seen back in public

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Government services minister says royal commission ‘is gripping reading’. Follow live news updates today

Cash says department was responsible for contracts amid reports of money paid to Pacific politicians over detention processing

Cash has also brushed off the Coalition government’s role in media reports of the taxpayer money for detention processing that went to Pacific politicians.

There is no suggestion that Peter Dutton himself played a part in signing the contracts. These contracts are signed by the Department of Home Affairs.

What Mr. Burke seems to want to do now is to reintroduce the uncertainty that existed prior to a legislation the Coalition government introduced.

… What this gets down to is one thing. These changes are part of the Albanese government’s ongoing campaign to attack and undermine those who choose to undertake casual work, despite the fact that it works for millions of Australians.

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Australia news live: voice support strong in Victoria because state ‘about ideology not common sense’, Nampijinpa Price says

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No campaign ‘offers no solutions and no vision’: young Indigenous leaders

The youth declaration urged Australians to educate themselves on the change, claiming “the no campaign offers no solutions and no vision for our young people’s futures, or our families and communities”.

We are excited that our Uluru Youth Dialogue, as the leading and only youth-led campaign, will be at the forefront of this referendum working alongside the senior leaders of the Uluru Dialogue.

These statistics are important. They paint a picture of a media debate that has shut out young people and their voices. Especially the voices of First Nations young people.

It is our future. Young people are crucial to this movement. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors, carrying forward the spirit and legacies of warriors before us.

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