Australia’s housing market ‘buckling’ under widening gap between income and home values, report finds

Housing prices fell by 0.1% in December but dip likely to be ‘shallow and short-lived’, according to CoreLogic

Australia’s housing downturn is being driven by a widening gap between income, borrowing capacity and home values, but the dip is likely to be “shallow and short-lived”, a new report has found.

In December, Australia’s property market eased with home values falling 0.1% after a flat result in November and a gradual slowdown over last year, according to CoreLogic.

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Falling house prices and drop in Victorian rental numbers could mark rise of owner-occupiers

Buyers looking to move in could benefit from 6.5% drop in market since March 2022 as state claims largest share of first home buyer finance

Owner-occupier buyers in Victoria could benefit from an investor sell-off that has been gathering momentum alongside falling house prices, an expert says.

Data from Victoria’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing revealed the number of rentals fell by almost 25,000 – or 3.6% – across the state over a year.

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UK ministers warned housing crisis puts plans for NHS and economy at risk

Damning report reveals millions in England are living in poor-quality housing that threatens their health

Ministers have been warned that efforts to save the NHS and grow the economy will fail unless they tackle the housing crisis, as a damning report reveals millions of people are living in substandard homes that risk worsening their health.

In total, 4.5 million people aged 50 or above with an existing health condition in England are living in poor-quality housing with one or more problems such as rising damp, rot or decay that may be making them even sicker, the Centre for Ageing Better analysis found. Of those, 1.7 million are aged 70 or over.

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Australia news live: Allan defends Victoria after it’s named worst state for business; Burke to meet Indonesian minister over Bali Nine

The Victorian premier has defended the state’s business credentials saying there’s key data missing from the Business Council of Australia’s report. Follow today’s news headlines live

Weather check shows mixed conditions forecast across Australian cities

It’s a mixed, if warm, bag in capital cities today, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting storms in Melbourne, sunny skies in Brisbane and Adelaide and showers across all other major cities.

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Guardian Essential poll: election warning signs for Labor as voters flunk government on housing costs and wages

But survey finds strong support for under-16s social media ban, despite concerns about how to enforce it

Voters have given the Albanese government an F on containing housing costs and surprisingly little credit for increasing wages in two troubling signs for Labor heading into a cost-of-living election.

Those are the results of the latest Guardian Essential poll of 1,123 voters, which found strong support for social media regulation, including two-thirds in favour of the under-16 age ban.

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UK politics live: Labour under pressure over housing and waiting list targets

Health bosses reportedly concerned about government’s focus while council leaders are said to believe building targets are unrealistic

Keir Starmer’s “plan for change” being unveiled later this week (see 9.26am) will involve sidelining the mission pledge to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7, Ben Riley-Smith from the Telegraph reports.

New targets on living standards will be unveiled by Keir Starmer on Thursday

Is being seen as a sidelining of his big economic pledge - getting the highest growth in the G7

The problem with the ‘highest sustained growth in G7’ target is Starmer of course doesn’t control the economies of US, Aus, Canada, Germany, France, Japan

US growing way faster now: 2.8% estimate for 2024 vs 1.1% for UK

For the new living standards target real household disposable income and GDP per capita have been considered.

The new promise will likely have the benefit of not being a pledge to beat other countries.

Note the nuance. The G7 target remains. It will likely be mentioned in the ‘Plan For Change’ document unveiled on Thurs and Starmer’s speech

But a new major economic pledge will now be unveiled which in the coming years is likely to be talked about much more than the G7 ambition

Councils are committed to keeping tenants and residents safe, and are keen to work with government to drive the pace of remediation.

However, for local government to carry out enforcement and addressing cladding issues as effectively and quickly as possible, multi-year funding arrangements are needed.

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‘We live on Pot Noodles’: rickets hits homeless families with no kitchen

Families placed in hotels in England are being forced to live on snack foods, putting young people’s health at risk

Homeless children placed in hotels are developing rickets and other diet-related health problems because their parents lack anywhere to cook.

The Magpie Project, which works with homeless mothers in the east London borough of Newham, where more households are living in temporary accommodation than anywhere in the country, said families living in hotels were eating an unhealthy diet of takeaways and snack foods because they had no cooking facilities or anywhere to store fresh produce.

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After a year of fighting, the Greens grant most of PM’s Christmas wishes in late bill flurry

This week, and particularly the passing of 31 bills on a frenetic final day, has done a lot to cement Labor’s first term agenda

On Thursday after question time, Anthony Albanese gave an end-of-year speech thanking his colleagues and opponents, although at times it was difficult to tell which was which.

Turning to the crossbench, the prime minister spoke about the importance of respect in politics but couldn’t help himself when it came to an obligatory reference to the “Greens political party”.

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Paul Karp is Guardian Australia’s chief political correspondent

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Personal details of financially distressed Australians shared in ‘leads list’ of property development course

Master Wealth Control, trading as DG Institute, breached privacy laws by sharing names and addresses of people in distressed situations, regulator finds

A property investment company breached privacy laws by sharing the names and addresses of people going through a divorce or financial distress with participants of its wealth-building classes, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has found.

Master Wealth Control Pty Ltd (DG Institute), whose director was the prominent Sydney property investor Dominique Grubisa until July, offers courses and mentoring programs on property and business investment.

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New home construction slumps to near 40-year low as renovation spending booms

‘This indicates that there is not enough money and resources being attracted to expanding the housing stock,’ urban economist says

New private residential construction is at its lowest level for almost four decades but spending on renovations has boomed, according to a new analysis.

The report by KPMG found that new private residential construction spending per capita is at its lowest level since 1987-88, as renovation spending surged from 34.2% of total residential construction spend in 2018-19 to 40% in 2023-24.

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‘Deaths of needless poverty and despair’: homelessness report reveals surge in fatalities

‘Staggering’ annual death toll of 1,500 revealed in 10-year analysis ‘a shocking indictment on our society’, expert says

Almost 1,500 people are dying in homelessness every year, with new research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showing a 63% surge in preventable deaths.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare today released an analysis of a decade of data, showing 12,500 people who had accessed homelessness services died over the 10-year period to 2022.

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Senate crossbenchers side with Coalition to oppose Greens motion to dump anti-abortion bill – as it happened

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The independent MP Zoe Daniel was on ABC News Breakfast earlier to discuss her alternative to the under-16 social media ban, which she introduced as a private member’s bill yesterday.

Daniel said her bill would implement an overarching statutory duty of care on social media companies “that goes to safety by design – but that in and of itself is not enough”.

What you need to make that work is the companies to assess the risks, mitigate the risks, be transparent about how they’re doing that.

The bill builds in penalties so if the companies do not comply, they could be fined up to 10% of global revenue. Also, their onshore executives could be held accountable for that … and the bill also has a provision to enable users to have control over the algorithm, as exists overseas, particularly in the EU …

[There are] obviously privacy concerns, and given the government’s had to pull their misinformation [and] disinformation – or their censoring the Australian public – bill from the Senate this week, we want to make sure we get strong, robust laws that don’t damage the [right to] privacy and make compulsory Australians having to have digital IDs.

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Musk argues social media bill may not be lawful – as it happened

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Does the delay on gambling ad restrictions have anything to do with the demands of lobbyists?

Clare O’Neil said it wasn’t about lobbying, but “about making sure that we get this right”.

And the minister has pointed to previous attempts to scale back gambling advertising that have actually resulted in more gambling advertising. This is a delicate area, and we’ve got to get the balance right, and that’s what the minister is seeking to do.

These complicated matters, they just are. You know, if this was a really simple problem to fix, then it would have been fixed a long time ago.

I would say our government deserves credit for stepping up and saying we’re going to take action on this, and the minister [Michelle Rowland] is doing what is appropriate, which is diligently working through what the proposals will look like.

The minister is working with people, experts, stakeholders, others who will be affected by this legislation, and the government has said will come forward with … proposals early next year.

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Perverse incentives leave young Australians locked out of community housing, study finds

Researchers find providers stand to lose 46% of possible income if they rent to young people compared with those on higher welfare payments

Thousands of young people are missing out on a safe place to live each year because community housing providers get more rent from older adults, research has revealed.

The lead author of the University of New South Wals research, Dr Ryan van den Nouwelant, said providers stood to lose 46% of the possible rental income if they chose a young person over an adult on a higher social security payment.

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Too many buildings remain unsafe after Grenfell disaster, housing minister warns

Wajid Khan tells House of Lords remediation work is yet to start on half of properties with unsafe cladding

Far too many high and medium-rise buildings are still unsafe after the Grenfell disaster, with dangerous cladding remaining on at least 2,400 blocks, a housing minister has warned.

Wajid Khan, a Labour peer and housing minister, said on Friday that remediation work had not started at approximately 50% of properties being monitored for their unsafe cladding.

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Burnayi Lurnayi: Bendigo development aims to provide safe homes for Aboriginal women

Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation says the development will help Indigenous women stay in the increasingly unaffordable regional city

Traditional owners have partnered with community housing providers in central Victoria to build a new housing project aimed at addressing the high rates of homelessness faced by Aboriginal women.

The development, named Burnayi Lurnayi, meaning “young women” in Dja Dja Wurrung language, is being built in the Bendigo suburb of Flora Hill, in a partnership between the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation (Djarra) and community housing organisation YWCA.

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Greens say leaked pokies reform report ‘a huge concern’ – as it happened

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Heatwave conditions are building over parts of Victoria and New South Wales today.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, much of Victoria will experience heatwave conditions, with maximum temperatures in the mid to high 30s.

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Average asking price for UK home drops by £5,000 in November

Analysts say market is still relatively busy despite decline of 1.4%, which is unusually high for this time of year

The average asking price for a UK home has dropped by more than £5,000 this month as the autumn budget caused housing market jitters before the usual Christmas slowdown.

Average asking prices from new sellers fell by £5,366, or 1.4%, in November to £366,592, compared with the 0.8% decline usually recorded at this time of year, according to the website Rightmove.

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California city council passes $5.9m reparations deal with ex-residents

Palm Springs approves settlement for displaced Black and Latino families after decades-long fight for compensation

The Palm Springs city council on Thursday unanimously approved a $5.9m reparations settlement with former residents of a largely Black neighborhood that was leveled in the 1960s for commercial development.

The city council was also set to approve another $21m for housing and small business support aimed at the former residents and their descendants.

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Winning designs: the terraces and apartments designed to fast-track NSW housing

State’s housing pattern book, launching in 2025, seeks to cut red tape and reduce development application times with pre-approved designs

Five winning terrace and apartment designs will be pre-approved in a new NSW government “pattern book” in a bid to fast-track housing development in the state.

The designs were selected from more than 200 in the state government’s Pattern Book Design Competition, submitted by architects from Australia and around the world.

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