Category Archives: Housing

‘It’s worrying’: Victoria’s affordable rental housing to be allocated by ballot rather than need

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Homes Victoria says ballot helps create ‘fair and transparent’ process but advocate fears those most in need may miss out

The Victorian government’s new affordable rental housing will be allocated to tenants by random ballot rather than need, with applications to be processed by a company already under scrutiny for what advocates have called a “troubling” use of renters’ data.

The first tranche of 34 houses from the 2,400 promised in the affordable housing rental scheme – part of the Andrews government’s “big build” construction blitz – were advertised in January.

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Collapse in new home listings in Sydney and Melbourne hits real estate company profits

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Domain chief Jason Pellegrino says decline is worse than during Covid lockdowns and banking royal commission

A collapse in the number of new homes on the market, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, is outpacing even the shaky listing rates recorded during pandemic lockdowns, weighing on the profits of real estate companies.

The chief executive of property portal company Domain Group, Jason Pellegrino, said on Thursday that the scale of listings declines during the last three months of 2022 also eclipsed pullbacks recorded during the banking royal commission, which scrutinised lending practices in public hearings in 2018.

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Legal victory in UK Japanese knotweed case could lead to more claims

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Court of appeal ruled homeowner could recover loss of value even if knotweed has been treated

A significant legal victory in a case brought by a householder affected by Japanese knotweed has raised the prospect of an increase in claims from people stricken by the hazardous plant.

The court of appeal ruled that a homeowner could recover damages for a loss of value of their property from having had Japanese knotweed, even if it had been treated.

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Can you predict which parts of Sydney will be next to gentrify?

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Researchers have developed a model which uses changes in the socioeconomic status of an area to anticipate gentrification

One consequence of rising rent and house prices in Sydney is the further gentrification of inner suburbs, with wealthier people displacing poorer households in certain desirable areas.

These shifts in neighbourhood composition in Australia’s largest city can have negative effects on the people displaced – people losing access to their community networks and familiar surroundings, as well as more practical concerns like access to transport and health infrastructure.

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Greens vow action as huge rent hikes see adults forced to move back in with parents

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Exclusive: Party seeking rent freezes, new body to set controls on prices and end to no-grounds evictions

Jeremy Bryant wasn’t expecting to be moving back in with his parents just a few weeks after turning 30.

But that’s where the successful musician and university student now finds himself, along with his little brother, after the rent on their Redfern home was raised by $110 a week.

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Sydney renter hit by 35% hike as housing crisis sparks calls to cap increases

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Tenants’ Union says some form of rent control is needed to alleviate pressure during a ‘nasty’ time in the market

Millie Bannister was already anxious about how much the rental market had skyrocketed in Sydney when she received a letter from her landlord saying they wanted to increase her rent by 35%.

“Last time, it only increased by $60, but now it’s going to increase by $270 a week, which is a 35% increase, and around $12,000 per year. For me and my roommate, two people in their mid-20s, it is not [easy] to wrangle with.”

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Capsule found after ‘needle in a haystack’ search – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

The deputy prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, spoke to ABC AM Radio from London following a meeting with the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

Marles would not be drawn into whether he discussed with Sunak the possibility of Australia acquiring British built nuclear submarines under the Aukus deal but said when the announcement is made it will be a “genuinely trilateral effort.”

Prime Minister Sunak commented on just how full the agenda is between our two countries and how much that is making – perhaps our oldest and most historic relationship – one which is deeply relevant in in the contemporary moment and certainly Aukus is central to that.

And we’re close to announcement and I’m not about to preempt that now. But I think what you’ll see is when we ultimately do announce the optimal pathway that we’ve been working on with both the United States and United Kingdom, that what it really is, is a genuinely trilateral effort to see by the UK and the US provide Australia with a nuclear powered submarine capability.

We’re confident that what we will be announcing in the coming weeks is a pathway that will be able to be delivered by all partners on time.

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Water firms in England urged to upgrade sewage works for new homes

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Campaigners in Oxfordshire, Cotwolds and Cumbria say houses should not be occupied until system can cope

Campaigners are intervening to prevent new houses being occupied in several areas of the country until sewage treatment works are upgraded to cope.

In Oxfordshire, the Cotswolds and in Cumbria, the failure of water companies to invest in sewage infrastructure means new homes would just add more sewage into treatment works that are at or beyond capacity, and increase pollution into rivers, they say.

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Australia news live: Peter Dutton to attend voice referendum working group meeting remotely

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Follow the day’s news live

The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, also spoke to ABC Radio this morning about how the government is balancing the budget with record high inflation, and all signs pointing to another rate hike from the RBA next week.

Gallagher says there will be mortgage pain for over a fifth of mortgage holders:

We’re expecting about 20% of mortgage holders to come off fixed rate loans this year.

We always said 2023 was going to be challenging year … Dealing with the inflation challenge is a key economic priority for the government.

What you’ll see is a continued focus on cost-of-living relief, funding those priority areas like health and aged care and making sure we’re getting the balance right in terms of spending restraint, banking upgrades and looking for sensible savings where we can.

There’s no doubt that migrants have been key to the formation of modern Australia.

I think [migrants] should be recognised for their contribution to this country. And I think that’s fair enough, but that’s not minimising the Indigenous.

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Gove admits ‘faulty’ guidance partly to blame for Grenfell fire

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Minister says he wants to abolish ‘outdated, feudal’ system of home ownership by end of this parliament

Michael Gove has admitted that “faulty and ambiguous” government guidance was partly responsible for the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The UK housing secretary said lax regulation allowed cladding firms to “put people in danger in order to make a profit”.

Gove’s remarks come more than five years after the tower block fire that killed 72 people.

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‘Mental torture’: six years after Grenfell, UK residents still live in fear as cladding deal falters

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A government agreement with developers was meant to solve the fire safety crisis in affected buildings – but the wrangling goes on

In June 2021, Charlotte Meehan received a safety inspection report for her block of flats as part of the nationwide checks after the Grenfell Tower fire. It made for grim reading, warning that the block had been built with combustible cladding and insulation.

Last April, the government announced a “wide-ranging” agreement with developers to fix the crisis of unsafe tall buildings, but Meehan, 34, and her fellow residents in the four-storey block in east London, are among tens of thousands still waiting for their homes to be made safe.

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Gulf royals own more than £1bn of UK property via tax havens

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New government register shows how offshore jurisdictions used for ownership of nearly 200 properties including hotels and country estates

The royal families of Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar own more than £1bn of UK property via offshore jurisdictions, such as Jersey and the British Virgin Islands, the Guardian can reveal.

Nearly 200 properties, including hotels, London mansions and country estates, belong to a few small but super-rich dynasties, according to analysis of a new government register that reveals who is behind offshore companies that own UK property.

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‘Holding cell’: Melbourne family with disabled son stuck in ‘transitional’ housing for a decade

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Rosalie Dow asked department for modifications to home but was told the policy was to transfer dwellings – which is yet to occur

When Rosalie Dow moved into transitional housing in Melbourne with her two young children in 2013, she thought it would only be for a few months.

Dow’s son, Mayer, was two, and showing signs of what would soon be diagnosed as Coffin-Lowry syndrome, a rare and often debilitating genetic condition with complications including intellectual disability, seizures, hearing impairment, sensory and behavioural issues, and an inability to walk.

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NSW stamp duty refunds expected to attract 2,500 applications as land tax scheme launches

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Coalition’s program allowing choice of annual tax over stamp duty could exceed projection of 6,000 applicants

About 2,500 people are expected to retrospectively apply for refunds to stamp duty paid on new homes bought since the middle of November when the New South Wales government’s land tax scheme officially begins.

New estimates from Revenue NSW suggest almost half of the 6,000 new owners who were expected to apply to have their stamp duty payments waived in favour of a land tax in the scheme’s first year will come within days of its introduction on Monday.

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UK private renters could save billions if energy efficiency minimum is raised

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Bill payers stand to collectively save billions if minimum standard raised to a C rating, research suggests

Raising the minimum standard of energy efficiency to a C rating for privately rented homes would save bill payers about £570 a year, research has found.

This would amount to annual savings totalling £1.75bn across the UK, according to the thinktank E3G in a report called Cutting Energy Bills and Raising Standards for Private Renters.

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Ex-homelessness charity bosses get 15-year ban for misuse of funds

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Charity Commission inquiry showed Ashley and Lee Dribben spent large sums meant for vulnerable people on themselves

Former homelessness charity bosses who authorised spending thousands in funds on watches, 50-in TVs and spyware to eavesdrop on clients have been found guilty of misconduct by the Charity Commission.

Ashley Dribben, an ex-trustee of the Ashley Foundation, and his father, Lee, its founder and former chief executive, personally benefited from funds intended to help vulnerable homeless people, the watchdog said.

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In Australia’s severe rental crisis, asylum seekers are increasingly desperate for a place to live

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Each week about 150 people are coming to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre in housing distress, but only 40 can be accommodated

Asylum seekers in Australia are increasingly at risk of homelessness as the rental crisis continues to bite, with more than 70% of people who turn up to a leading asylum seeker support charity in housing distress unable to be placed in accommodation.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) has shifted resources since the pandemic to provide emergency accommodation for asylum seekers who are sleeping rough or at immediate risk of homelessness.

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News live updates: Albanese flags Australian interest in Papua New Guinea hydro and hydrogen; NSW and Victoria rule out Pell state funeral

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Victorian premier says there will not be a state service for cardinal, out of respect for victim-survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. Follow live

Visa processing problems in spotlight

Pat Conroy acknowledged ongoing visa processing issues and said the government was “hopeful that we can get a resolution on that issue”:

People in Papua New Guinea are also very keen on our Pacific engagement visa, which is about creating 3,000 permanent migration spots each year into Australia … and there’s also lots of interest in Papua New Guineans working, studying in Australia as well.

His message around democracies is that [it is] incumbent upon politicians in both countries [to] defend democracy and we defend democracy by demonstrating it’s the best system to deliver actual benefits for the people that we govern. So that’s about investing in stronger health outcomes, lifting stronger economic outcomes.

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Competing NSW housing policies could put ‘inflationary’ pressure on prices, economists warn

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Experts say Labor’s stamp duty exemptions and Coalition’s land tax policy will likely benefit sellers most

The much-vaunted housing relief packages proposed by Labor and the Coalition in New South Wales are both “much ado about nothing”, experts say, warning they are likely to put upward pressure on prices as Sydney’s over-heated property market begins to cool.

Labor fired the starter’s gun on state election season on Monday, putting a plan to increase stamp duty exemptions for first home buyers facing cost-of-living pressures in western Sydney at the centre of its bid to win government after a decade in opposition.

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Interest rate hikes trigger Australian housing market’s biggest decline in 40 years

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But market is unlikely to have bottomed out, with further cash rate increases from 3.1% likely to continue driving prices lower in 2023

The Reserve Bank’s aggressive rate-hiking cycle has triggered the housing market’s biggest decline in more than four decades.

The 8.4% drop between May 2022 and January 2023 is the deepest peak-to-trough fall on CoreLogic’s records, which date back to 1980.

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