Mr Frank was once one of the 10,000 mostly Indigenous, public housing tenants in the NT relying entirely on a pre-paid meter for their power but after years of negotiations with industry and government, Mr Frank is the first public housing tenant in the NT to make the switch.
UTube Video – 5.25mins
Germany’s laws are broadly in favour of the tenant, with long leases and strict eviction requirements allowing renters to stay put long-term.
Housing experts say Australia is falling behind in providing a coordinated policy structure that offers stronger renter protections, long-term stability, and adequate funding for social housing.
“We haven’t had a national coordinated housing policy in Australia since 1992,” said Swinburne University professor of housing policy Wendy Stone.
Although there’s no model that can just be “picked off the shelf of another country”, there are a range of approaches that Australia could look to in order to reduce rental stress and improve the housing market overall.
Australia is one of the few developed countries that allows no grounds evictions.
Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT have recently made changes to eviction laws, but across much of the country booming rental prices have led to an increase in tenants being evicted without cause.
In recent months, Ireland, Scotland and Spain announced rent controls and laws that cap annual rent increases.
In 2020, South Korea also introduced a range of stronger tenant protections, including limiting rent increases to 5 per cent, amid a staggering rise in real estate prices.
Former aged-care residential units will be transformed into affordable housing for low-income older women in Bellingen on the NSW Mid North Coast.
Key points:
Some had hoped that legislation on a First Nations Voice to Parliament would be released before the 2022 Federal Election.
But the prospect of meeting this timeframe remains uncertain.
Meanwhile, a new ANU survey has found a significant majority of Australians support recognising First Nations people in the constitution.
This 23minute radio recording is facilitated by Hilary Harper with the following guests:
Professor Megan Davis, Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous and Professor of Law at UNSW, Chair of the Expert Mechanism on the UN Rights of Indigenous People. Megan was intimately involved in the process that led to the 2017 Uluru statement from the Heart.
Associate Professor Ron Levy, Researcher in Law and Politics at ANU
Canberra has had the highest rental prices of all capital cities for almost a year.
Its median rent, including houses and units, is $633 a week, according to data firm CoreLogic’s latest report.
That is significantly higher than Sydney’s ($595) and far above the typical rent in an Australian city ($500).
National Shelter, a housing lobby group, said the ACT market was particularly horrific for poorer renters, as they must compete with much higher-paid Canberrans.
At least one solution may provide a solution for some unveiled in the territory this week was the latest “build-to-rent” project: housing complexes dedicated to renters.
NHFIC notes the joint announcement on 16 December 2021 by the Hon Scott Morrison MP and the Hon Michael Sukkar MP on increasing NHFIC’s liability cap, and welcomes the Government’s additional support to deliver social and affordable housing.
Link to an announcement by Hon Scott Morrison
The authors offer an analysis and solutions to the housing supply crises.
Proposed solutions include:
Firstly, affordable housing will be removed from circuits of wealth creation, restoring the primacy of its shelter function. This does not mean that its value growth should be static. Rather, it should be construed to redirect speculative investment to more productive sectors of our national economy.
Secondly, it should be delivered through a variety of systems, including the “for profit” system if it wished, that are genuinely competitive in order to lower prices.
Thirdly, it should not be accompanied by any regulatory changes that diminish existing spatial standards, as seems to be the current industry push.
A high-grade Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) project in Marsden has reached completion, joining the string of Queensland developments bolstering national SDA housing supply.
Developed by investLogan in partnership with Blue CHP and Compass Housing Services, the project will add to Queensland’s portfolio of SDA housing which is leading the way nationally.
investLogan Chair Steve Greenwood said the Brandon Street project was a response to the 14,000-place demand for SDA dwellings in Australia.
“Where there is national demand there is an opportunity to make an impact locally, and the statistics show a significant need for high-quality SDA housing for Logan people on NDIS plans,” Mr Greenwood said.
“investLogan is actively responding to the community housing need locally by creating community homes that support the tenants, not just physically, but by allowing them to feel connected to the local community.
Construction is complete on a new $2.22 million social housing renewal project in Dubbo, thanks to a partnership between TAFE NSW and the NSW Land and Housing Corporation (LAHC).
Through the partnership, local pre-apprenticeship construction students from TAFE NSW Dubbo worked alongside tradespeople and TAFE supervisors to build eight new social housing apartments at Short Street, close to the CBD.
With the announcement on 16 December 2021 of the $500 million increase to the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation’s (NHFIC) liability cap, leading Queensland community housing provider BHC is calling on the Federal Government to do more to give certainty to institutional investors, and hope for Australian families in housing need.
Providers are calling on the Government to amend arrangements for the NHFIC liability cap as follows: