City Futures Blog

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

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Entries Tagged as 'Government'

Social money for social housing (part 1)

December 7th, 2016 · 1 Comment · Government, Money

Recently the industry group Infrastructure Partnerships Australia made a proposal  to ‘fix Australia’s social housing system’. State Governments, said IPA, should sell off their public housing properties over a twenty year period, and place the proceeds  in ‘Social Housing Future Funds’. Income from fund investments (reckoned by IPA at the rate of the CPI + 4.5 per […]

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Productivity Commission stance could hold potential for social housing gains

September 27th, 2016 · No Comments · Government

By Hal Pawson, Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published at The Conversation. The new Productivity Commission report favouring “greater competition, contestability and user choice” in social housing has caused concern among advocates for low-income tenants. The report is an interim output from an ongoing review of the nation’s human services – including public […]

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All aboard for the Bankstown corridor – or just the lucky few?

September 21st, 2016 · 1 Comment · Affordability, Cities, Construction, Demographics, Government, Housing supply, Public space, Transport, urban renewal

By Professor Bill Randolph, Director, City Futures Research Centre. This is an extended version of an article published by The Conversation. It would be easy to assume that the new Sydney Metro Rail project will create something of an urban paradise along the new Sydenham to Bankstown Urban Renewal Corridor through which it will run. […]

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The 30 Minute City (part 2): challenges and opportunities in Western Sydney

August 29th, 2016 · 1 Comment · Cities, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Transport, Wellbeing

By Kerry Robinson, General Manager, Blacktown City Council. This is the second of a two-part series adapted from presentations to the Planning Institute of Australia mid-winter breakfast on the 30 minute city; see part 1 by Professor Susan Thompson, City Futures Research Centre. Blacktown City is 20-22 km across and home to 348,000 people, 111,000 jobs […]

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Ditching Logan’s public-private regeneration sets Queensland back on social and affordable housing

July 25th, 2016 · 1 Comment · Government

By Hal Pawson, Associate Director, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published at The Conversation. Four years after its announcement, the Queensland government last week cancelled the central plank in the Logan Renewal Initiative: the overhaul of Logan’s 4,900 public housing dwellings by a community-housing-provider-led consortium. The initiative is a planned 20-year strategy to reshape Logan, […]

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Housing’s back

July 12th, 2016 · No Comments · Affordability, Government, Housing

One week on and the election has produced a government – which, for a while there, didn’t look like a sure thing. However, the more remarkable result of the election campaign was this: one of the major parties campaigned on reforming tax settings to reduce house price speculation and, having grasped what was long supposed to […]

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NSW tenancy law review misses on security for tenants

June 28th, 2016 · No Comments · Government, Law, Tenancy

Last week the NSW State Government tabled in Parliament the report of its five-year review of the Residential Tenancies Act 2010. Its strongest point is a series of recommendations relating to domestic violence, including for provisions for victims to immediately terminate a tenancy because of domestic violence, and avoid being held liable for property damage […]

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Might Labor’s negative gearing policy yet save the housing market?

May 26th, 2016 · 1 Comment · Affordability, Construction, Government, Housing, Housing supply

Originally published at The Conversation. The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) has unleashed the hounds on Labor’s proposed reforms to negative gearing. The REIA’s campaign, Negative Gearing Affects Everyone, follows the lead of the Property Council, which describes the Australian housing market as a “house of cards”, with the REIA stressing how “fragile” the […]

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The dust up over density

May 24th, 2016 · 2 Comments · Cities, Government, Housing supply

By Bill Randolph, Director, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published in Domain. The indicative massing strategy for the Central to Eveleigh study area. Photo: City of Sydney, UrbanGrowth We’ve all heard about the ‘Brawl over Sprawl’.  Well, now we have the ‘Dust up over Density’.  The stakes, as well as the buildings, are high because this […]

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The Australian housing market is a house of cards

May 6th, 2016 · 2 Comments · Affordability, Government, Housing

When Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that his government would change nothing about Australia’s tax settings on negative gearing and capital gains, one of the Sunday papers ran the headline ‘Safe as Houses‘. Hardly. The Australian housing market is a house of cards – and that’s the view of the property lobby itself, as depicted […]

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