Category Archives: Housing

Australia news live: SA swelters as heatwave warnings issued in other states; fire ants nest south of Byron Bay destroyed

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Homelessness increasing across Australia, report finds

In January every year, the Productivity Commission releases its Report on Government Services, which “monitor[s] the performance of Australian governments in the delivery of important services to the community”.

The first thing is to stay connected with the emergency messaging and understand the alerts that may and will come out as the cyclone approaches the coast.

But more importantly, use the next 48 hours to 72 hours to prepare yourself and your family for a potential cyclone crossing and flooding event after. You can do simple things like keep the fuel in your car topped up now, make sure you have enough food in your house for 72 hours, [and] make sure you have battery charging packs for your phone. Very simple things you can do.

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Police hunt alleged $8.7m Melbourne property swindler and warn of ‘pig butchering’ scams

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Detectives believe man is targeting single women – while AFP shines spotlight on romance fraud

Law enforcement agencies are on the hunt for a man accused of stealing millions from property market investors as police warn Australians to be on guard against “pig butchering” scams before Valentine’s Day.

A Victorian man is alleged to have fleeced wannabe property market investors of $8.7m by claiming to be a developer who offers to help people demolish their homes and build townhouses in their place.

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Concerns a Sydney apartment complex is at risk of collapse downplayed by NSW watchdog and planning minister

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Building commissioner says he is confident defects at 900-apartment complex in Macquarie Park ‘will be rectified’, while minister says faults don’t pose a risk

The New South Wales building watchdog and the state’s planning minister have downplayed concerns over 900 apartments in Sydney’s north that were at risk of collapse after defects were discovered in the basements of the buildings.

The building commissioner, David Chandler, on Thursday said he was distressed that people who lived in the Macquarie Park building had been stressed by the news and he moved to assure the public there was “no risk to this building”.

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Child attacked by crocodile at Kakadu – as it happened

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PM says $15bn reconstruction fund is ‘open for business’ despite inability to apply for it

The prime minister was asked why the $15bn national reconstruction fund is “taking so long”, having passed through the parliament in March last year and being brought into effect in July.

Whether the website is there or not, is it is an interesting point that you’re making, but businesses that are interested in this would have looked at a video from the finance minister Kate Gallagher in November, that set out the investment mandate that was agreed to by the government and the National Reconstruction Fund, which importantly, is an independent body at arm’s length in terms of making those decisions because we want those decisions.

The money is available now.

I’ll examine the issue of the website, that is a reasonable point that you make. But people who are actually following this and interested in applying will have seen Katie Gallagher’s release setting out what the what the process is.

At a time when members of the Australian community are unhoused as a result of fire, as a result of flood, it seems unacceptable … that we could be giving large benefits to those who already have a great deal.

… inequality is an issue and the government has looked at ways in which we can improve that position.

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‘I was livid’: Sydney single mother pressured by landlord to leave rental just nine months into lease

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Fiona was told that the landlord needed to move into the flat, which was then relisted for $300 more a week when Fiona moved out

A Sydney landlord put pressure on a single mother to leave her rental home after just nine months, eventually relisting the property at $300 more a week when the tenant’s lease expired.

Fiona*, who has two children, last year rented a two-bedroom apartment in Arncliffe for $690 a week through agency Century 21.

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Murray Watt says compounding weather events the ‘new reality’; girl hospitalised in K’gari dingo attack – as it happened

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Melbourne: two suspected arson attacks could be linked to crime group conflicts, investigators say

Two suspected arson attacks that destroyed a Melbourne tobacco shop destroyed by fire could be linked to ongoing violent conflict between crime groups, investigators say, AAP reports.

In Spain, improved public understanding of the dangers of heatwaves, coupled with a national heatwave plan, has helped save lives. We should consider adopting a framework for alerts and communications here that builds on Seville’s heatwave naming approach.

Heatwaves have killed more people in Australia than any other natural disaster since 1900, and without sustained and ambitious policies to improve our resilience to extreme heat the challenge will get even harder.

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News live: NSW issues Covid warning with cases at 12-month high; PM has ‘imperfect’ advice that no Australians caught in PNG violence

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Anthony Albanese says no requests for aid or reports of any Australians there caught up in Port Moreseby unrest. Follow the day’s news live

Government fences off Rozelle Parklands after asbestos discovery

As Catie McLeod reported yesterday, the finding of some asbestos in playground mulch in new parklands in Sydney’s Rozelle triggered a closure of those areas just a couple of weeks after they had been opened:

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Crack down on mouldy homes in England or more will die, warns doctors’ body

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Royal College of Physicians urges government to introduce new law amid rising damp, mould and leaks in social housing

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has called on Michael Gove to accelerate a promised crackdown on landlords failing to fix tens of thousands of mouldy homes with a warning that unless laws are toughened many more people will die from the effects.

As the housing ombudsman reported increasing failures among landlords to properly tackle damp, mould and leaks in England’s social housing, Prof Sir Stephen Holgate, special adviser on air quality to the RCP, warned of widening ill-health as more people inhale fungal toxins.

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Hampshire allotment holders ‘appalled’ over eviction notices

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Villagers in King’s Somborne angry over letters from landowner, the diocese of Winchester, sent over festive period

For more than a century villagers have grown fruit and veg on allotments at King’s Somborne, a picture postcard village in the Test valley, Hampshire.

But plot holders are up in arms after being served eviction notices from the owner of the land, the diocese of Winchester, to make way for housing.

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Australian capital city rents up 13% over year as further hikes predicted for 2024 amid housing shortage

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Housing advocates call for urgent reform to address growing crisis as capital rents hit average of $600 a week

Australia’s record shortage of rental properties will continue to drive prices up for tenants, analysts say, with a new report revealing combined capital city rents rose 13.2% year-on-year.

Data from PropTrack, the property analytics division of REA Group, has revealed national rental prices rose 11.5% over the past year, with combined capital city rents up 13.2% to an average of $600 a week, driven by large increases in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

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Perth overtakes east coast to become Australia’s hottest capital city property market

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Buyers and renters compete for limited stock as the Western Australian capital favours sellers and landlords, CoreLogic analysts say

The Australian property boom has shifted from east to west, with buyers and renters tussling for a limited number of Perth homes and creating a housing crisis for those left behind.

Perth has become the hottest selling market among state capitals, with homes listed for a median 11 days before being sold, according to CoreLogic data calculated for Guardian Australia.

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Unit owners in Sydney’s Mascot Towers offered chance to wipe debts years after defects found

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Deal suggested by NSW building commissioner comes after residents were forced to evacuate in 2019

Owners of apartments in Sydney’s Mascot Towers may reach a potential settlement to clear massive debts for the first time since being forced to evacuate their units due to defects.

The New South Wales building commissioner, David Chandler, has offered a lifeline to residents of the buildings, in the city’s inner-south, who have been faced with significant repair bills since cracks were discovered in the basement in 2019.

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The Greens ring in the new year with a new fight over Australia’s housing crisis

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Adam Bandt signals new rent freeze push and criticises ‘tax cuts for billionaires’ as Labor aims to get ‘help to buy’ scheme through parliament

New year, new housing fight.

The Labor government may have started the year keen to talk cost-of-living relief and housing solutions, but the Greens have entered 2024 vowing to push the Albanese government to make actual change.

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Police clear Berkeley’s historic People’s Park in surprise midnight operation

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In latest move by University of California, Berkeley, law enforcement agencies arrested protesters and erected barrier

In a midnight operation, hundreds of police officers descended on People’s Park in Berkeley, California, to clear out the activists and unhoused campers occupying the area, to make way for the construction of a housing complex for students.

By dawn, the park that was once the centre of the 1960s antiwar and counterculture movement was walled off with shipping containers and surrounded by police.

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Australia’s property market faces fresh peaks and troughs with slowing prices and interest rates tipped to drop

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Price trends are unlikely to be straightforward in 2024, even if the RBA’s next move is a rate reduction

Australia’s “rollercoaster” real estate market faces fresh peaks and troughs in 2024 as the prospect of falling interest rates contend with a recent slowdown in price increases.

Renters, meanwhile, are experiencing smaller increases in payments but the share of income going to rent remains at near-record levels with little relief in sight.

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England has ‘twice as many empty homes as families stuck in B&Bs’

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There are 121,327 in short-term housing, while 261,189 homes are empty long-term, say Lib Dems

England has more than twice as many long-term empty homes this Christmas as there are children living in temporary accommodation, the Liberal Democrats have said, calling this a stark indication of a “broken” housing market.

The numbers of families without a permanent home and in short-term housing, whether hotels and B&Bs or temporary rental properties, has hit a record high this year, with the latest statistics showing it now affects 121,327 children, according to data collated by the House of Commons library.

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Sunak rebuked by UK’s statistics watchdog for making misleading claim about government debt – as it happened

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The prime minister has been facing questions on his government’s performance from senior MPs on the Commons liaison committee

Social care leaders felt “blindsided” by recently announced changes to visa rules banning care workers from bringing their families to the UK and have “grave concerns” it could drive people from the sector, the Commons health committee heard this morning. PA Media has filed this from the hearing.

The head of Care England, which represents social care providers across the country, criticised a lack of consultation with the sector, saying it left them “particularly concerned, annoyed and irritated”.

Prof Martin Green, its chief executive, told the committee the system is currently already “creaking at the edges” due to a lack of funding, and spoke of the “chronic workforce shortage” it faces.

Today’s guidance does not go far enough. During the many months we have been waiting for its publication, it has become increasingly clear that non-statutory guidance will provide insufficient protection and clarity, and that a change in the law of the land is required.

That is why I am today asking the government to back my private member’s bill which would change the law in this area to ensure children are fully protected.

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Report: California leads nation in street homelessness and youth living outside

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Experts say lack of affordable housing in state is the main cause, worsened by expiration of pandemic programs that added shelter

California continues to lead the nation in homelessness, with US data showing the state has the highest rate of unhoused people living outside in a worsening humanitarian crisis.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) released its Annual Homeless Assessment Report (Ahar) on Friday, providing a “point in time” snapshot from January 2023. On a single day, 653,104 people experiencing homelessness were counted across the US, the highest number since the count began in 2007. The estimates are considered to be undercounts.

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Michael Gove threatens action against English councils over housing plans

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Housing secretary aims to bring end to delays, as weakening of housing targets is confirmed

Michael Gove will threaten to take action against councils that miss deadlines to submit their housing plans in a speech on Tuesday designed to highlight the government’s commitment to build new homes across England.

The housing secretary will say he will “call out” local authorities that fail to publish their future development plans with a threat to intervene if necessary.

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Australia news live: ABC cancels The Drum; two feared dead in NSW plane crash

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Education review due

Education minister Jason Clare spoke to ABC News Breakfast just earlier about the much-anticipated review into Australia’s education system, released today.

You talk about entrenched disadvantage in our schools, this report tells us we’ve got one of the most segregated school systems in the OECD, not by the colour of your skin but the size of your parents’ pay packet. Children are more likely to fall behind at school if they’re from a poor family and from the bush, but if they’re at a school where a lot of people are experiencing disadvantage it’s even harder to catch up. There’s a number of things we need to do to turn that around.

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