Sydney’s property prices dropped 10% this year, with $450 a day lost from average home

Decline comes as RBA documents indicate values may sink as much as 20% nationally from their February peak by end of 2024

Sydney’s property prices have fallen by more than 10% since their mid-February peak, shedding almost $450 a day in value on an average home, and leading other major markets lower, CoreLogic said.

The 10.1% decline for home values in the harbour city so far comes as documents from the Reserve Bank of Australia indicate average property values may sink as much as 20% nationally from their recent highs by the end of 2024. That decline would be the steepest since the 1980s if realised.

Continue reading...

Housing, Indigenous and domestic violence services to receive extra $560m in federal budget

Exclusive: The partial indexation of funding aims to help community organisations cope with rising costs

Community organisations such as housing, Indigenous and domestic violence services will receive an extra $560m over four years in Labor’s first budget since its re-election.

The partial indexation of funding revealed by the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, aims to help community services keep up with rising costs.

Sign up for our free morning newsletter and afternoon email to get your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Handwritten notes, door-knocking, recipes: real estate agents turn ‘desperate’ across Australia

Amid falling house prices and interest rate rises, agents are turning to increasingly frenzied measures to hunt for sellers

The first time Neha Samar received a handwritten note in her letterbox asking if she would be willing to sell her home, she threw it in the bin and forgot about it. The third time she received a similar note, it felt “creepy”.

Samar has lived in her Shepparton property, north-east of Melbourne, since 2018, but this is the first year real estate agents have come knocking.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Proposal for motels to house homeless people to be brought to Queensland summit

Repurposing of existing accommodation and other facilities to be suggested at government-convened housing meeting

Hotels and motels would be repurposed to house homeless people under a proposal to be tabled at Queensland’s affordable housing summit on Thursday.

The proposal is among a string of ideas to be floated for urgent relief for the tens of thousands of people who are on the state’s social housing waiting list, couch surfing or sleeping in cars or on the streets.

Sign up for our free morning newsletter and afternoon email to get your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Brisbane real estate agency advises landlords to increase rents by over 20% amid housing crisis

Agency claims most tenants ‘are agreeable’ to the rent increases, which Tenants Queensland calls ‘opportunistic price-gouging’

A Brisbane real estate agency has urged landlords to consider raising rents by more than 20%, as Australia grapples with a worsening rental crisis.

An email, sent by Ray White West End, asked landlords if their properties were being “under-rented” before advising them to increase rents by more than double the rate of inflation.

Sign up for our free morning newsletter and afternoon email to get your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

More than half of NSW MPs own more than one property

High ownership of multiple residences among state MPs has prompted accusations they are ‘blind’ to the escalating rental crisis

More than half of MPs in the New South Wales lower house own multiple residential properties, prompting concerns the state’s politicians are “blind” to record increases in rental prices.

Amid a fresh push for reform to the rental market, an analysis of MP disclosure records show landlords are disproportionately represented on Macquarie Street.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Victoria and Tasmania hit by flooding; NT triple murderer sentenced to life in jail

Seventy flood warnings in place across Victoria, with 10,000 people without power and 40 schools and childcare centres shut. Follow the day’s news live

‘Walk the talk Labor’: Spender urges government to help households decarbonise

Independent MP Allegra Spender has taken to social media to urge the Albanese government to take action supporting Australian households as they decarbonise:

Our families and businesses are hurting. Sovereign risk is not a defence when the super profits are being made because of a war.

Continue reading...

Proposed levy on Queensland’s vacant homes backed by advocates

Greens bill will see investors pay 5% levy on all residential property left vacant for more than six months

The Queensland Greens say their proposal to tax investors for vacant homes could see tens of thousands of properties returned to the rental market during a nationwide housing crisis.

The bill, introduced into parliament on Thursday, proposes charging investors a 5% levy of the “capital improved value” of all residential property and land that has been vacant for six months or more in a year.

Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning

Continue reading...

Man shot dead by police in Brisbane – as it happened

Queensland police say officers had been called to Edmonstone Street in South Brisbane around 3pm. This blog is now closed

Treasurer says surging electricity costs will make inflation ‘hang around longer’

We brought you the grim news on the blog yesterday that the head of Alinta energy has predicated a 35% increase to retail electricity bills next year, as energy providers juggle phasing out fossil fuels alongside investment in renewables.

I think one of the reasons this inflation will hang around longer than we want it to is because there are expectations around these electricity price rises being more problematic for longer.

You’ve said the government would put the economy above politics, can you really say that’s what you doing if you leave the stage-three tax cuts in place as they are?

I can say that, and I think what people will see in the budget in two weeks’ time is some difficult decisions in difficult times.

Our job is to make sure that our budgets are perfectly calibrated to the economic conditions as we confront them.

Continue reading...

NSW stamp duty overhaul ‘vanilla’ but could help first home buyers cut costs

Annual tax could be paid for almost 20 years before it equalled the value of a stamp duty payment in parts of western Sydney, calculator suggests

First home buyers could save tens of thousands of dollars under the New South Wales government’s proposal for an optional land tax but housing experts say the “vanilla” plan falls well short of the “revolution” it had initially promised.

On Monday the government said it would introduce its plans for an overhaul of stamp duty into the state’s parliament this week.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

NSW trial to allow prospective first home buyers to swap stamp duty for ongoing land tax

Buyers will be able to choose a $400 annual fee and 0.3% of the land value while it’s their primary residence instead of stamp duty

Prospective first home buyers in New South Wales will be able to see how much money they would save by opting in to an ongoing land tax instead of stamp duty, with a new online calculator.

The government will introduce legislation this year to trial the First Home Buyer Choice from January.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Raw sewage in living room among complaints heard by property tribunal

Guardian analysis of hundreds of documents also finds complaints of rodents, bed bugs, overcrowding and fire safety issues

Raw sewage leaking into a living room, rodents, bed bug and mite infestations, overcrowding and fire safety issues make up just some of the complaints levelled at rogue landlords in tribunal filings in the past year.

The findings come after the Guardian analysed hundreds of documents from the first-tier property tribunal involving tenants renting house-shares of five or more people (or three or more in parts of London) sharing kitchen and bathroom facilities, known as houses of multiple occupation or HMOs.

Raw sewage leaking from a toilet and seeping through the living room ceiling, which had to be collected in plastic containers.

Multiple properties that had no fire detection system or smoke alarm; lacked an adequate central heating system; had infestations of rodents, bed bugs and pigeon mites, which were not adequately dealt with.

A London landlord renting out a property through a company the tribunal found did not exist.

A converted church rented to students was inadequately secured after a burglary and the burglar was later found to be living in the attic. At the same property, a fire took place when smoke alarms were not working.

Continue reading...

Phoenix could see deadliest year for heat deaths after sweltering summer

With 22 days hitting 110F or higher, suspected heat deaths in the Arizona capital topped 450

Extreme heat contributed to as many as 450 deaths in the Phoenix area this summer, in what could be the deadliest year on record for the desert city in Arizona.

The medical examiner for Maricopa county, which includes Phoenix, has so far confirmed 284 heat-related deaths, while investigations into 169 more suspected heat fatalities are ongoing. The highest number of deaths – and emergency hospital visits – coincided with the hottest days and nights.

Continue reading...

Hypothermia deaths of unhoused people rise sharply in Los Angeles, records reveal

Data obtained by the Guardian shows at least 14 unhoused people froze to death in 2021, part of an overall surge in homeless deaths

At least 14 unhoused people froze to death on the streets of Los Angeles in 2021, new county data reveals, marking a sharp increase in reports of hypothermia fatalities and a grim sign of how dire the region’s homelessness catastrophe has become.

Out of 14 deaths where the LA coroner’s office cited “cold exposure” and hypothermia last year, six victims died on sidewalks, according to public records obtained by the Guardian. Four died in hospitals, and the others were found at a bus bench, a parking lot, a dried-up riverbed and an abandoned building. The death toll is significantly higher than previous years, with six reported hypothermia deaths in 2020, nine in 2019, seven in 2018 and three in 2017.

Continue reading...

Richard Marles meets Nauru’s new president – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Optus not forthcoming on breach, Tanya Plibersek says

A federal minister has slammed Optus for not being forthcoming with either customers or the government more than a week on from the cyber attack, AAP reports.

One of the real problems is the lack of communication by Optus, both with its customers and the government.

I don’t think the company is doing a particularly good job with its customers or providing the government with the information we need to keep people safe.

Those in the know say it wasn’t a very sophisticated way to get into the Optus information.

Why can’t they protect your privacy and get back to people and say we have a real problem here and be careful?

Continue reading...

Property prices dropped further in September and falls ‘could accelerate’ again with rate rise

Investors and banks predict RBA will raise cash rate further on Tuesday, while rent increases begin to slow around Australia

Australia’s property prices fell another 1.4% in September as the cost of borrowing increased, and another interest rate rise is likely after Tuesday’s Reserve Bank meeting.

Last month’s drop in CoreLogic’s home value index was less than the 1.6% fall in August but the pace of declines could quicken again if the RBA’s key interest rate keeps rising, said Tim Lawless, the data group’s research director.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Victorian Greens say 30% of homes in new developments should be cheaper for first-time buyers

Party to announce election policy to build 200,000 affordable and public homes and reintroduce social housing levy on developers

A plan to build 200,000 affordable and public homes will be at the heart of the Victorian Greens election campaign, with its leader, Samantha Ratnam, claiming major parties have “given up” on addressing the housing crisis due to their relationships with developers.

The party will on Saturday launch its election platform, proposing the reintroduction of a social housing levy on property developers and a requirement that 30% of homes in large developments are set aside for first-home owners.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Renting to the highest bidder: calls for federal laws to ban practice amid Australia’s cost-of-living crisis

It’s a landlord’s market, as hundreds queue to rent properties with negotiable prices that many simply can’t afford

Peak housing bodies are calling for nationally consistent rental laws to crack down on bidding wars putting pressure on tenants in a shrinking market.

Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania have introduced reforms to ban rent bidding – the process of negotiating the price of a rental by advertising a property within a “range” or without a fixed cost.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Buy-to-let landlords facing financial cliff edge after mini-budget

Mortgage market meltdown has left many amateur landlords facing a stark choice: to raise rents or sell up

Britain’s amateur landlords have benefited from years of runaway house price inflation, while intense competition among tenants has sent rents soaring. Now, thanks to the meltdown in the mortgage market triggered by last week’s disastrous mini-budget, many face a financial cliff edge.

Figures shared with the Guardian show that the number of new buy-to-let mortgage deals available has plummeted by 55% in less than a week as lenders frantically pulled products and in many cases increased prices.

Continue reading...

Private rental market ‘the epicentre’ of Australia’s housing affordability problem, report finds

Productivity Commission finds rent prices are driving demand for social housing and homelessness services

A $1.6bn agreement to help facilitate affordable housing in Australia has failed to reduce inequity and national reform is now imperative, the Productivity Commission has found.

The commission on Friday released the findings of its review into the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (NHHA), the key document that governs federal funding to the states for housing services. The sharply worded report urges the government to overhaul commonwealth rent assistance, focus on fixing the rental crisis, and wind back concessions and grants for homebuyers in favour of funding stretched homelessness services.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...