City Futures Blog

News and research in housing and urban policy, from Australia’s leading urban policy research centre.

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Impact of pedestrian network barriers on walkability: a Cooks River case study

August 6th, 2021 · No Comments · Bikes, Data, Sydney, Transport, Uncategorized

By Josephine Roper, PhD student, City Futures Research Centre. Urban rivers can provide welcome open space, a cooling effect, scenic beauty and recreation opportunities, but can also be barriers to movement. Bridges are relatively expensive pieces of road infrastructure so are generally spaced out, rather than crossing a river at every possible point. But in […]

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Here comes PlanTech to help transform our cities – but how?

August 2nd, 2021 · No Comments · Data, Uncategorized

By Claire Daniel, Jago Dodson, Chris Pettit and Audrey Marsh. Originally published by The Fifth Estate. Big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and platform technologies are now common terms in our vernacular. But what do they all mean for the complex task of planning sustainable cities?  We have seen the recent emergence of FinTech, LegalTech […]

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Digital disruption in planning – survey results of planners’​ perspectives

May 12th, 2021 · No Comments · Guest appearance

By Claire Daniel, Scientia PhD Scholar, UNSW. In 2019 we conducted a survey of practicing Australian planners to collect their perspectives on technology use in the profession and anticipated change. The results have now been published in a peer-reviewed article in Australian Planner co-authored with Professor Chris Pettit. I would like to share the highlights with you […]

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New research project: regulation of residential tenancies and impacts on investment

May 4th, 2021 · No Comments · Private rental

Residential tenancies laws across Australia are on a broadly common ‘consumer protection’ model, but with many differences in the details, including coverage of marginal tenures, notice periods, termination grounds and processes. States’ and territories’ reform processes have mostly been unco-ordinated, and significant divergences and gaps have opened up in the law, particularly for interstate landlords. […]

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States housed 40,000 people for the COVID emergency. Now rough sleeper numbers are back on the up

February 11th, 2021 · No Comments · Uncategorized

By Hal Pawson and Chris Martin. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Read the full report, ‘COVID-19: rental housing and homelessness impacts – an initial analysis‘. Australian governments acted to protect homeless people from COVID-19 in 2020 on an even larger scale than previously thought. […]

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Dealing with apartment defects: a how-to guide for strata owners and buyers

December 14th, 2020 · No Comments · Housing, Housing conditions, Strata, Uncategorized

By Sian Thompson, UNSW; Bill Randolph, UNSW; Hazel Easthope, UNSW; Laura Crommelin, UNSW, and Martin Loosemore, University of Technology Sydney. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. If you own an apartment – or are thinking of buying one – the recent news about building quality […]

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$1 billion per year (or less) could halve rental housing stress

November 2nd, 2020 · No Comments · Affordability, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Private rental

By Rachel Ong ViforJ, Curtin University; Chris Martin, UNSW; Hal Pawson, UNSW, and Ranjodh B. Singh, Curtin University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. COVID has shown us what’s possible when it comes to alleviating poverty. For six months JobSeeker payments were doubled and then […]

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Inquiry into integrated housing support for vulnerable families

October 13th, 2020 · No Comments · Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Indigenous

By kylie valentine, Kyllie Cripps, Kathleen Flanagan, Daphne Habibis, Chris Martin and Hazel Blunden. This is an edited extract from the executive summary of the AHURI Inquiry Report. Read the executive summary, the full report and the policy evidence summary here. Domestic and family violence (DFV), mental illness and problematic alcohol and other drug use […]

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A brief history of Australian residential tenancies law reform: from the nineteenth century to COVID-19

September 4th, 2020 · No Comments · Housing, Law, Pandemic, Private rental, Tenancy

By Chris Martin. Originally published in Parity, the journal of the Council to Homeless Persons. Australia is currently going through a period of unusual activity in residential tenancies law reform. New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT have recently concluded reviews and amended their legislation, and Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory are currently […]

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COVID-19 renter survey – invitation to participate

August 19th, 2020 · No Comments · Housing, Pandemic, Tenancy

Renting in Australia during the COVID-19 emergency? You’re invited to participate in a survey about COVID-19 rental negotiations, conducted by the City Futures Research Centre at UNSW Sydney. The survey is open to persons who Were living in a rented dwelling in Australia on 29 March 2020 (when the eviction moratorium was announced) Are aged […]

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