Category Archives: Housing

NSW Labor rejects conference motion to repeal anti-protest and youth bail laws – as it happened

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Turning to US politics, Greber says:

It’s a massive shift. You can see it in the way the Democrats feel the momentum.

One of my old sources, I used to be a correspondent in DC, one of my old sources it was as if a month ago the doctor walked in and said, “I’m sorry the test results are terrible, you got three months to live.”

They don’t have many options other than hitting people with mortgages to reduce demand in the economy, which by the way has been driven by an awful lot of federal and state government spending.

The RBA needs to get on top of this and unfortunately people who have mortgages will be the ones who are hit hardest.

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‘People think they’ll smell but they don’t’: building homes from mushroom waste and weeds

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A sustainable project aims to repurpose encroacher bush to create building blocks to solve Namibia’s housing crisis

“People think the house would smell because the blocks are made of all-natural products, but it doesn’t smell,” says Kristine Haukongo. “Sometimes, there is a small touch of wood, but otherwise it’s completely odourless.”

Haukongo is the senior cultivator at the research group MycoHab and her job is pretty unusual. She grows oyster mushrooms on chopped-down invasive weeds before the waste is turned into large, solid brown slabs – mycoblocks – that will be used, it’s hoped, to build Namibian homes.

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Melbourne public housing towers demolition to go ahead despite residents’ class action

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Exclusive: Lawyer says move by state government shows residents being treated ‘as an afterthought’

The Victorian government is forging ahead with plans to demolish three public housing towers subject to a class action seeking to stop the redevelopment.

The move was described by a lawyer for residents as an example of them being “treated as an afterthought”, after the supreme court ordered the class action could proceed to a two-day trial earlier this month.

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Mandatory housing targets at core of economy-focused king’s speech

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Planning reforms and transport policies included in package of more than 35 bills as Labour prioritises growth

Local councils will have to adopt mandatory housing targets within months under planning reforms to be unveiled on Wednesday as part of Keir Starmer’s first king’s speech, which the prime minister says will be focused on economic growth.

Starmer will introduce a package of more than 35 bills on Wednesday, the first Labour prime minister to do so in 15 years, as he looks to put the economy at the centre of his first year in office.

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Biden housing plan seeks to curb rent increases by penalizing landlords

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President to unveil rent control plan for larger landlords that would restrict increases to 5%, or risk losing tax breaks

President Joe Biden wants to curb rent increases by penalizing landlords who hike rents beyond 5% each year, but he needs the help of Congress to put the plan into action.

The Biden administration will announce the idea in Nevada on Tuesday along with a host of other housing-related policies, including an influx of funds to add more housing in Nevada and elsewhere and a plan to use public federal lands for affordable housing near Las Vegas.

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Anger over delay to end of no-grounds evictions in NSW as renters face ‘perfect storm’

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Premier Chris Minns says government is still ‘grappling’ with issue that has already been outlawed in most states

The New South Wales government has been accused of failing renters by delaying legislation to end no-grounds evictions as demand for legal aid spikes across Sydney.

Despite both major parties pledging to abolish no-grounds evictions in the 2023 election, the government is yet to introduce legislation to implement the much-anticipated reforms.

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Life at the heart of Japan’s lonely deaths epidemic: ‘I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried’

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Some 68,000 people are expected to die alone and unnoticed in Japan this year, police say, as the population continues to age

“We occasionally greet each other, but that’s all. If one of my neighbours died, I’m not sure I would notice,” says Noriko Shikama, 76. She lives alone in a flat Tokiwadaira, in Tokyo’s commuter belt and has come to the Iki Iki drop-in centre to catch up with residents over cups of coffee served by volunteers.

Here, amid the everyday discussions about the merits or otherwise of dyeing grey hair, people also share news about the latest lonely death, or kodokushi – officially defined as one in which “a person dies without being cared for by anyone, and whose body is found after a certain period”.

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Renters in New York City fight back against real estate broker fees

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City is one of few in the US where tenants can be forced to pay fees, despite a landlord having hired the broker

A row is brewing in New York City between renters and real estate brokers, over who pays the thousands of dollars in fees when an apartment is rented.

On 12 June, lawmakers in New York met to discuss the Fairness in Apartment Rental Expenses act (Fare act), which would require the person who hires the broker to pay the broker fee.

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Rough sleeping in London hits highest level in a decade

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Almost 12,000 rough sleepers were seen by outreach workers in 2023-24, a 19% increase on the previous year

Rough sleeping in the capital has hit the highest level in a decade, with more than 1,100 people living on London’s streets for the first time because of evictions.

The number of new rough sleepers seen for the first time by outreach workers between April 2023 and March 2024, surged 25% to 7,974 people – the highest in at least four years. Almost one in 10 people living on the streets was aged 25 or under – including 13 children.

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Toronto residents flood city lotteries amid ‘impossibly unaffordable’ housing

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Demand far outstripped supply for six lotteries amid rising rents in city with scarcity of affordable options

Toronto inhabitants fed up with rising rents are flooding city-run lotteries for affordable housing in new developments, but the chance of being selected for a subsidized unit is often less than 1%.

One new development in the city’s West End recently offered a random public draw to allocate 135 units with rents pegged to income ceilings that would cost hundreds of dollars less than market rates. Nearly 12,500 people entered the draw for the homes aimed at middle-income earners in the Galleria on the Park development.

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Inflation rises to 4%, stoking concern interest rates could increase again

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The consumer price index increased to its highest level in 2024, indicating the Reserve Bank is unlikely to cut interest rates soon

Australia’s monthly inflation rate increased to its highest level in 2024 in the latest indication that the Reserve Bank won’t be cutting interest rates soon and might yet hike again.

Consumer prices rose 4% last month from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. That compared with the 3.6% pace recorded for April, and the 3.8% rate expected for May by economists.

The jump in May’s inflation was propelled in part by automotive fuel prices, which were up 9.3% from a year earlier even as they retreated 5.1% during the month itself.

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Shadow energy minister says system in ‘dire trouble’ – as it happened

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Australia needs more gas supply on east coast, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese is speaking to the ABC from Devonport.

We’ll work those issues through with Aemo.

We need more gas supply. We announced our future gas strategy a short while ago because we understand that we need more supply. Gas has an important role to play in manufacturing in particular. But also in providing firming capacity for the renewables rollout.

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From social housing to $1.5m for a studio: minister hits out at ‘dud deal’ sale of Sydney’s Sirius building

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Exclusive: Rose Jackson says losing public housing in expensive central suburbs leaves society worse off, and this week’s state budget will address issue

A decade ago the only way to secure a bed in Sydney’s brutalist icon, the Sirius building, was a proven need and time on the social housing waitlist. Now the price of admission starts at $1.55m – for a studio apartment.

The last of the 76 apartments in the redeveloped complex in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge are on the market after the building was sold to a developer by the former Coalition state government for $150m in 2019.

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Victoria’s premier unveils new housing targets for construction of 2.5m new homes by 2051

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Jacinta Allan reveals Geelong will be set highest target for new homes, with City of Melbourne and Melton second and third

Melbourne’s CBD, the outer suburbs and the regional city of Geelong will shoulder the burden of new housing in Victoria, according to draft council targets set to be released by the state government.

The premier, Jacinta Allan, and planning minister, Sonya Kilkenny, will on Sunday announce their proposed housing targets for local government areas (LGA), which they say could lead to the construction of 2.5m new homes by 2051.

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Housing to be at the centre of NSW budget, with more homes for those in need

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Treasurer Daniel Mookhey foreshadows more money for social and affordable housing while lamenting drop in state’s GST share

Housing will be the centrepiece of the New South Wales budget, with money for social and affordable homes, regional development and essential services to support growth across Sydney.

While the treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, acknowledged there was no quick fix for the crisis, he said he had been listening to experts who called for more homes to help those most in need and stem the brain drain from the state.

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Starmer promises ‘long-term strategy’ in business-friendly Labour manifesto

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Labour puts economic policy and wealth creation at heart of pitch to win over former Conservative voters

Keir Starmer will put economic growth and wealth creation at the heart of Labour’s offer to voters as he launches a business-friendly manifesto targeted at former Conservative voters.

The Labour leader will launch his election manifesto in Greater Manchester on Thursday, promising to emphasise economic stability in a deliberate contrast to the Conservatives’ more policy-heavy offering earlier this week.

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New ‘targeted’ search in Samantha Murphy investigation – as it happened

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Sydney’s light rail network disrupted today amid industrial action

A reminder for Sydney commuters that the light rail network will be disrupted today amid planned industrial action.

Recent estimates have Australians consuming around 3,300,000 bags of cocaine per year, with every single one of them bought off the black market. There is no way of knowing whether any of them have been cut with deadly substances like fentanyl or nitazene.

We have to acknowledge that the majority of people who use cocaine do so recreationally and there is absolutely no chance of stopping people using the drug. We therefore need to consider all options to reduce harm, including regulating cocaine in a similar way to how we regulate alcohol.

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UK politics: Anas Sarwar says election is about ‘getting rid of Tories’, not Scottish independence – as it happened

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Leaders of Scotland’s five main political parties clash during live TV debate

Momentum, the leftwing Labour group set up when Jeremy Corbyn was leader, is not happy about Keir Starmer’s jibe about Corbyn’s manifesto.

Labour’s 2019 manifesto was fully costed.

Keir should know, he stood on it as a member of the shadow cabinet.

How about stopping attacking your own side during an election @Keir_Starmer?

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Australian capital city rents have biggest monthly fall in over four years but crisis ‘far from over’

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Sydney house rents still nation’s highest but an expected rise in vacancy rates this winter could provide some relief to tenants, expert says

Average asking rents in Australia’s capital cities fell 0.5% in May, the largest percentage monthly decline in more than four years.

New data released by SQM property research shows the fall in average capital city rents – to $723 in May – was the largest monthly percentage decline on that measure since April 2020.

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Sunak pledges to keep stamp duty threshold at £425k for first-time buyers

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Pledge comes as parties prepare to launch their manifestos, with Labour to offer support for small businesses

The Conservatives would permanently scrap stamp duty on homes up to £425,000 for first-time buyers, Rishi Sunak is expected to pledge in the party’s election manifesto, in a move that would affect 200,000 households annually.

The threshold was raised from £300,000 to £425,000 in the September 2022 mini-budget as a temporary relief measure that is due to expire next March.

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