Category Archives: Housing

Albanese rallies against ‘fear and division’ at Labor campaign launch – as it happened

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Anthony Albanese and senior Labor members speak at ALP campaign launch in Perth; Scott Morrison speaks at Sydney rally; Coalition outlines e-safety plan; Greens announce LGBTQ+ equality plan; Victoria reports seven Covid deaths; NSW reports five; South Australia reports two. This blog is now closed

Simon Birmingham is pushed on what the Coalition will actually do on the cost of living but there isn’t a clear answer. See this exchange with Insiders host David Speers:

Q: So essentially to get wages going is to keep doing what you’ve been doing for the last nine years?

David, our plan is a comprehensive economic plan and in contrast to the Labor party. We have outlined clearly plans for … that jobs growth. Jobs growth fuelled by lower taxes and tax relief for Australians that continue to be implemented in terms of lower income taxes, support for more businesses.

David, it is a plan that we’ve outlined in quite a lot of detail, compared to ...

If you look at this year’s budget, small business, a particular focus in relation to investment in technology …

The approach we’ve taken is to fix a particular problem in the housing market and that was the fact that you had to save, of course, for your deposit, takes months and months, years and years, to get that 20% deposit to avoid having to pay mortgage insurance, that was meaning that people were having to pay rent at the same time as saving.

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Anthony Albanese pledges to lower cost of PBS medicines and boost EVs at Labor campaign launch

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Opposition leader also vows to make gender equity an objective of the Fair Work Act if ALP wins federal election on 21 May

Labor has promised to reduce the cost of medicines on the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, roll out new charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and focus on improving pay equity for women if Anthony Albanese defeats Scott Morrison on 21 May.

The Labor leader used the party’s official election campaign launch in Perth on Sunday to unveil a promise to reduce the cost of drugs on the PBS by $12.50. Albanese told the party faithful gathered at Optus Stadium that meant the maximum price for medicines for millions of Australians would be $30.

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Coalition criticises Labor’s housing policy because government could profit from price rises

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Scott Morrison argues Labor is ‘looking to make money out of this’ as Anthony Albanese pledges to cut cost of some mortgages by up to $380,000

The finance minister, Simon Birmingham, says Australians don’t want Anthony Albanese at the table with them sharing equity in their homes after Labor announced a policy to make homeownership more affordable for low and middle income earners.

Birmingham told the ABC on Sunday the Morrison government’s affordable housing initiative was the preferred model.

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Labor to help low and middle income earners buy home with shared ownership scheme

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Anthony Albanese will unveil $329m Help to Buy housing initiative as the centrepiece of Labor’s campaign launch in Perth

Anthony Albanese will provide help for Australians on low and middle incomes to buy houses by giving eligible applicants a commonwealth equity contribution of up to 40% of the purchase price of a new home, and up to 30% for an existing home.

The Labor leader will unveil the new $329m housing initiative as the centrepiece of Labor’s official campaign launch in Perth on Sunday. If Albanese wins on 21 May, Labor’s new shared equity housing policy will be implemented in addition to the Morrison government’s First Home Guarantee scheme.

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Clive Palmer’s campaign pledge to cap home loan rates ‘utterly irresponsible’, experts say

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United Australia party plan to combat rising rates an ‘just an attention grabber’ and not genuine policy, critics say

Clive Palmer’s centrepiece campaign pledge to cap homeowners’ interest rates for five years has been dismissed by economists as “radical”, “crazy” and “utterly irresponsible” even though it will probably appeal to some gullible voters.

According to the United Australia party’s website, the mining billionaire’s “economic plan for freedom and prosperity” pledges to set a maximum 3% interest rate for all home loans to head off a looming mass default as lending rates start to rise.

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Buyers warned about rushing into government’s First Home Guarantee scheme

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Predicted rate rises and falls in property values pose risks to those considering loans with a 5% deposit, experts say

First-home buyers have been warned to plan carefully before taking advantage of a federal government scheme that would allow them to secure property with a 5% deposit, at a time interest rates are predicted to rise.

Experts say the First Home Guarantee scheme could be appropriate for people who plan to stay in one spot for a while and are comfortable riding out a possible property value trough, but warn it could still be risky, especially in regional areas.

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War of words breaks out following new report into Queensland’s housing crisis

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Queensland Council of Social Services says social housing waiting list could blow out by 10,000

The Queensland and federal governments are trading blows over the state’s housing after another report on the crisis.

A new report from the Queensland Council of Social Services (Qcoss) says more than 50,000 households are currently on the waiting list for social housing.

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‘Housing in Australia is broken’: only 1.6% of private rentals are affordable for those on minimum wage

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Anglicare’s annual snapshot calls for 50% rise in rent assistance payments, more social housing and changes to tax system

Only 1.6% of private rental properties in Australia are affordable for minimum wage earners and all but zero for those on benefits, Anglicare’s annual snapshot has found.

The Rental Affordability report, released on Thursday, took data from the rental listings on realestate.com.au over a single weekend and assessed whether those properties were affordable – costing no more than 30% of a household budget – for people on low incomes.

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No-fault evictions: 200,000 renters in England served notices in three years

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Shelter says a private tenant is handed notice every seven minutes despite government promise to ban practice in April 2019

More than 200,000 private renters have been served eviction notices without doing anything wrong in the three years since the government first promised to ban the practice, housing campaigners have claimed.

Every seven minutes a tenant has been landed with a no-fault eviction notice since Theresa May’s Conservative government first committed to scrap them in April 2019, according to research by Shelter, the housing charity.

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Councils in England are failing to use new powers to block shoddy housing schemes

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Research by UCL finds cash-strapped local authorities in the south-west, Midlands and north less likely to challenge developers

Housebuilders are churning out substandard housing schemes with poor living conditions despite councils having the power to block them, according to new research.

The National Planning Policy Framework was amended in July to allow councils to refuse “development that is not well designed”. A study by University College London found that the Planning Inspectorate, which hears housebuilders’ appeals, is now three times as likely to back councils who reject developments on design grounds. But it also found that the vast majority of those blocked were in the south-east, suggesting that elsewhere councils were not using the new powers.

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Labour says it will insulate 2m houses in first year to cut bills

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Ed Miliband says move will ease energy price crisis and reduce dependence on Russian gas

Labour has said it would insulate 2m houses within a year to slash bills and reduce reliance on Russian gas, accusing Boris Johnson of a “shameful” failure to stop Britain’s homes leaking heat.

The government put major nuclear and onshore wind projects at the heart of its energy security strategy announced earlier this month, but faced criticism for failing to include any new measures on insulation despite the UK having some of the draughtiest housing in Europe.

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Firms that refuse to fund cladding repairs could face trading ban

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Uncooperative developers to be threatened with loss of planning permission by Michael Gove

Developers that are refusing to contribute to the fund set up to fix dangerous cladding will be warned this week they could be blocked from selling new homes.

The levelling up secretary, Michael Gove, will explicitly threaten retaliation, citing powers in the building safety bill that would stop uncooperative developers getting planning permission.

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Modular homes on way to accommodate New South Wales flood victims

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More than a month after they were announced 2,000 temporary pod homes are being sent to flood-affected communities

Up to 2,000 modular homes will be sent to accommodate displaced flood victims in northern New South Wales, a month after the state government announced the measure.

The temporary modular “pods” will be rolled out on the Northern Rivers, with the first 25 recovery pods to be delivered to Ballina, followed by additional sites to be named across Tweed, Byron, Richmond Valley and Lismore in coming weeks.

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More than $3bn of social housing sold by NSW government since Coalition took power

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Data also reveals the government has fallen well behind its own targets for new dwellings

The New South Wales government has sold off $3bn worth of social housing during its decade in power, while failing to meet its own targets for new properties.

New figures released through parliament this week show that since it was first elected in 2011, the Coalition has sold off 4,205 social housing properties across the state.

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One in eight privately rented homes in England pose threat to health, MPs say

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Serious health and safety risks costing NHS £340m a year, public accounts committee report finds

More than one in eight privately rented homes in England pose a serious threat to people’s health and safety, costing the NHS about £340m a year, according to a report from a committee of MPs.

It also uncovered evidence of unlawful discrimination, with an estimated one in four landlords unwilling to let to non-British passport holders.

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Advocates say people with disability are increasingly ‘forgotten’ in emergency planning

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Insufficient accomodation and government support spark calls for better resourcing and planning in disaster responses

After being evicted from her short-term accommodation to make way for tourists, flood victim Margaret was left with nowhere else to go.

“I would have been homeless, living out of my car with two dogs,” the 79-year-old said.

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Australia’s first-home buyers urged to ‘go in with eyes wide open’ about future rate rises

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The good news is more places on offer in the first home guarantee scheme. The bad news could be higher mortgage repayments

Laura Valencic has never had the luxury of calling the “bank of mum and dad” to help her buy a home.

After the federal government announced more places under the first home guarantee scheme in the budget, Valencic feels like she finally has an in. But she’s wary of a potential pitfall in the future: will she be able to afford the mortgage repayments when interest rates rise?

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From energy costs to TV bills: what has gone up in price today?

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Britons face a shock as household costs soar – and some unexpected items such as beer also go up

It’s been dubbed “bleak Friday” by some: pre-announced price rises for many household bills are to take effect on 1 April, adding to the misery for consumers who are already paying more for goods and food than this time last year.

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Victoria daily news update: hospitality training to fill shortages, Matthew Guy isolates and Covid cases rise

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Both Daniel Andrews and the opposition leader are now in isolation as Covid cases rise across the state

A quick summary of all the Victorian news you need to know on Tuesday 29 March.

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Property developers fight NSW bid to make houses more energy-efficient and climate-resilient

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Environmentalists call changes ‘everything you could ever dream about’ but industry says they ‘undermine the economics of delivering housing’

Property developers in New South Wales are fighting against the introduction of a wide-ranging planning policy aimed at ensuring houses are more energy-efficient and climate-resilient, which one environment group described as “everything you could ever dream about”.

Public comment closed last month on the draft Design and Place state environmental planning policy, hailed late last year by the then planning minister Rob Stokes as “NSW’s first comprehensive design policy”. It would offer “an important opportunity to reshape the look and feel of the places we live in”.

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