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 'Housing'

Why western Sydney is a magnet for investors

February 19th, 2020 · No Comments · Demographics, Finance, Housing, Private rental, Sydney, Tenancy

Western Sydney is popular with investors but most of these investors do not live there. Photo: Brendan Esposito By Hal Pawson and Chris Martin, City Futures Research Centre. Originally published at Domain. With the latest ABS statistics indicating a fourth straight quarter of rental investor housing finance growth, it appears that Australia’s private landlords are rediscovering a taste for […]

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Australia’s housing system needs a big shake-up: here’s how we can crack this

February 17th, 2020 · No Comments · Affordability, Economy, Finance, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing supply, Tenancy

By Hal Pawson, UNSW; Judith Yates, University of Sydney, and Vivienne Milligan, UNSW. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Despite two years of housing market cooling in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia stayed near the top of the global unaffordability league in 2019. And with prices rebounding […]

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‘I wouldn’t want to buy even if I had the money.’ The rise of renters by choice

February 10th, 2020 · No Comments · Affordability, Guest appearance, Housing, Tenancy

Image: fizkes/Shutterstock By Alan Morris, University of Technology Sydney; Hal Pawson, UNSW, and Kath Hulse, Swinburne University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The private rental sector has expanded at more than twice the rate of the increase in Australian households in the last […]

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Why adequate and affordable housing matters to productivity

January 21st, 2020 · No Comments · Cities, Economy, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Productivity

By Wendy Hayhurst, CEO Community Housing Industry Association. Originally published on John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations. A growing body of research is demonstrating the adverse productivity impacts of inadequate or unaffordable housing in Australia (and elsewhere). These include impacts on human capital through the mismatch between the availability of suitable housing and employment, and the distorting […]

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Your Airbnb guest could be a tenant. Until the law is cleared up, hosts are in limbo

December 16th, 2019 · No Comments · Guest appearance, Housing, Law, Marginal rental, Sharing, Tenancy

Image credit: Daniel Krason/Shutterstock By Bill Swannie (Victoria University) and Chris Martin (City Futures Research Centre). This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. With summer holidays around the corner, many Victorians may be thinking about offering their homes through a home-share platform, such as Airbnb, while they […]

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As simple as finding a job? Getting people out of social housing is much more complex than that

December 12th, 2019 · No Comments · Affordability, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Tenancy

By Chris Hartley, Center for Social Impact, UNSW and Kathleen Flanagan, University of Tasmania. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. A private member’s bill, moved by Labor MP Josh Burns, recently called on the Australian government “to help build more affordable homes” in response to the growing homelessness crisis. […]

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Lack of information on apartment defects leaves whole market on shaky footings

November 21st, 2019 · No Comments · Construction, Data, Government, Guest appearance, Housing, Housing conditions

By Martin Loosemore (University of Technology Sydney); Bill Randolph, Caitlin Buckle, Hazel Easthope, and Laura Crommelin (City Futures Research Centre, UNSW Sydney). This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.   The litany of defects, poor building standards and regulatory failures has serious implications for apartment owners, occupiers and buyers alike. Fears […]

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The First Home Loan Deposit Scheme: Housing affordability action – or just more busy work?

October 31st, 2019 · No Comments · Affordability, Finance, Government, Housing

By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. The Australian Government has this week revealed the policy details for the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (FHLDS). From 1 January qualifying first home buyers (FHBs) become eligible for a government guarantee that will enable them to access a mortgage with a 5% deposit rather than the normal […]

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Growing numbers of renters are trapped for years in homes they can’t afford

October 21st, 2019 · No Comments · Affordability, Government, Housing, Law, Private rental, Tenancy

By Hal Pawson, City Futures Research Centre. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Low-income tenants in Australia are increasingly likely to be trapped in rental stress for years. New evidence from the Productivity Commission shows almost half of such “rent-burdened” private tenants are likely to remain […]

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Towards a Shared Accommodation Act: City Futures’ submission to the review of the Boarding Houses Act 2012 (NSW)

October 17th, 2019 · No Comments · Government, Housing, Law, Marginal rental

By Chris Martin, City Futures Research Centre. This is an edited extract from City Futures’ submission to the review of the Boarding Houses Act 2012 (NSW). Read the full submission here. The Boarding Houses Act 2012 was landmark legislation. Its introduction of a central, state-wide Boarding Houses Register increased visibility and knowledge of the sector, […]

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