Category Archives: Housing

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

Posted on by

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.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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).

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

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

Posted on by

Follow the day’s news live

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.

Continue reading...

Leaking sewage and no water: Victorian renters’ compensation claims stall in tribunal backlog

Posted on by

One family is among 13,000 waiting for their application to be processed after nightmare tree change left them with uninhabitable housing

When David*, his partner and young daughter moved to a regional Victorian property close to two-and-a-half years ago, they just wanted a tree-change. What they got was a nightmare rental experience, a hole in their bank account worth more than $20,000, and a prolonged dispute that is still without resolution.

David, who asked that his surname not be used, is just one of nearly 13,000 people waiting for his bond and compensation application to come before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Vcat), where backlogs still persist and the median wait time is more than nine months.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Renters worse off as landlords begin evictions to skirt new Queensland laws, tenants group says

Posted on by

Government says new regulations stipulating rents can not be raised more than once a year will be reviewed

Landlords seeking to avoid new Queensland laws limiting rent increases to once a year have left numerous renters worse off, according to the state’s tenants’ rights service

The Palaszczuk government on Thursday said it would review the laws – just two weeks after they took effect – amid reports landlords had evicted tenants in order to get around the regulation.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Use of Kingspan insulation on towers near Grenfell angers residents

Posted on by

Council orders contractor to immediately remove material made by firm implicated in 2017 disaster

Materials made by a company implicated in the Grenfell Tower disaster have been installed on a pair of nearby council tower blocks during fire safety works, in a move met with outrage in the west London community.

Insulation made by Kingspan, the firm that provided some of the combustible foam on the tower, which went up in flames on 14 June 2017 killing 72 people, was discovered last week on the Adair and Hazelwood towers, a few hundred metres from Grenfell.

Continue reading...

Young renters reducing spending amid cost of living crisis more than any other group: CBA boss

Posted on by

Commonwealth Bank head Matt Comyn said people who bought their first home during the pandemic had also reduced spending by around 30%

Renters are hitching their belts even tighter than mortgage holders as rising prices erode their savings capacity.

Commonwealth Bank data suggests those aged between 25 and 29, who are likely facing sharp rental increases, are pulling back on spending more than any other group.

Continue reading...

Local councils warn Victorian government against seizing control of planning laws

Posted on by

Municipal peak body also says more town planners are desperately needed to speed up building approvals

Local councils have warned the Victorian government that seizing control of planning laws will not fix the state’s housing crisis, pointing to a shortage of town planners across all levels of government.

As pressure builds on the premier, Daniel Andrews, to release details of the government’s housing package – which he says will include a “substantial rewrite of planning laws” to increase supply, the Municipal Association of Victoria is urging caution.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Tory MPs back mandatory swift bricks in all new homes to help declining birds

Posted on by

Calls grow for legislation requiring developers to include hollow bricks for endangered nesting species

Conservative MPs are joining calls for a new law to guarantee swift bricks in every new home to help the rapidly declining bird and other endangered roof-nesting species.

Pressure is growing to amend the levelling up bill so that developers are required to include a hollow brick for nesting birds in all new housing, with MPs to debate the issue in parliament on 10 July.

Continue reading...

Senator says she has been ‘excluded’ from writing pamphlet – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Patricia Karvelas challenges Littleproud’s Covid reasoning behind the Murray-Darling Basin delays on ABC RN this morning.

“This isn’t a new problem … Your government was in power when a 2019 Productivity Commission report warned that there had been limited progress returning the water to the environment,” she says. “Why didn’t you change course?”

This is a very technical piece of legislation … The 450 is additional to the 2,750 gigalitres of water in the plan, the Productivity Commission looked at the 450 gigalitres, there’s only been 2 gigalitres recovered on the 450 …

Because the neutrality test on social and economic impact on rural communities have not been passed to get more water back out of it – that’s a test the Labor government put in place, that we adhere to that the states agreed to.

He [is] going down a path that’s divided the country and meant that the attention has been taken away from managing people’s cost-of-living crisis, and focused on trying to win a referendum in which he has overreached in conflating a voice with constitutional recognition.

Continue reading...

Rents rise again across Australia with Sydney seeing fastest rise in 20 years

Posted on by

Median unit in harbour city now costs more than median house in every other capital, Domain says, as immigration adds to rental ‘pressure cooker’

Rents continued to climb across Australia in the June quarter, particularly in the biggest cities, with a median unit costing more to rent in Sydney than a median house in every other state capital, data from Domain showed.

A record migrant intake that will swell the nation’s population by 715,000 people over two years and a return of overseas students and temporary visa holders will add to the “rental pressure cooker”, Domain said in its quarterly report. About 127,000 additional dwellings will be needed this financial year alone.

Continue reading...

Greens refer PwC to Nacc; yes campaign holds voice events across the country – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog has closed

Myroshnychenko says Ukraine war can’t get any worse

On the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his wagner mercenary group, Myroshnychenko says he is reluctant to get into speculation about “palace intrigue” in Russia.

We haven’t seen any major impact in the battlefield as the mutiny was unfolding, Russians sent on shelling Ukrainian cities sending missiles, heavy battlefields on the frontlines. Definitely the reputation of Vladimir Putin was dented. His leadership was challenged. And in a country like Russia is really extraordinary to see it happening. Putin is running the country as a thug so pretty much a gangster country and all these thugs and somebody revolts all of a sudden, this is already kind of bizarre.

I don’t think anything can be worse, right? Can it get any worse? Look, Russians have deployed 150,000 people in Ukraine – occupied 20% of the land. They just shell us on a continuous basis, killing and raping and murdering people. Can it get any worse? I don’t think so.

I think any support for Ukraine will be very good investment into the restoration of the rules-base international system.

Something which is so important for every Pacific nation because if you can allow a bigger power to curse a smaller power – and you don’t fight back and you let that happen, that sends a wrong signal especially to your neighbours, to countries that depend so much on your support to be sovereign and to make their own decisions and not to be influence bid bigger powers.

Continue reading...

RBA should pause rate rises as ‘deflationary shock’ sweeps global economy, former board member says

Posted on by

Warwick McKibbin says Australia’s central bank has been slow to react as supply pressures from Covid and war in Ukraine abate

The Reserve Bank should pause lifting interest rates because a “deflationary shock” is beginning to sweep the global economy, according to the former RBA board member Warwick McKibbin.

The director of the ANU Research School of Economics said it is becoming clear supply shocks from Covid and Russia’s war against Ukraine are abating. However central banks, including Australia’s, have so far been slow to react.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...