Thousands more Millennials living at home, latest census figures reveal Shocking stats affecting young people Melissa IariaNCA NewsWire Wed, 29 June 2022 https://thewest.com.au/business/tho...t-home-latest-census-figures-reveal-c-7345467 Not Supplied Credit: istock The number of Millennials living at home has soared by thousands amid the pandemic, insecure work and an increasingly unaffordable rental market. The 2021 census revealed the number of non dependent children, aged 25-34, living at home has surged, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show. The number of male children in this age group who were living at home rose to 280,133 – a 17 per cent hike since the 2016 Census. Numbers of women aged 25-34 living at home also rose to 176, 413 – an increase of 14 per cent. University of Melbourne sociology lecturer Dr Brendan Churchill said Covid-19 was probably the biggest factor behind the shift. “There was a significant number of young people who had to leave their rental and return back home during the pandemic; it’s quite possible that these young people have stayed there,” he said. The pandemic was likely the biggest factor behind the shift. Photo: NCA NewsWire/David Crosling Credit: News Corp Australia Furthermore, if the pandemic resulted in people’s savings taking a hit, it may have prevented their return to the rental market or a place of their own. The “general declining fortune of young people” in the labour market was another huge factor, Dr Churchill said. “Full-time, secure, well paying jobs with benefits are drying up for young people,” he said. “The youth labour market is not what it was; it’s been degrading and declining in the last few decades, and young people are having trouble getting those types of jobs that pay well, and give them good income security to be able to move out of home. “I think all of this is kind of conspiring together to make it harder for young people to leave the parental home. “People are staying at home longer because it’s simply affordable.” Young adults are living back at home because it is affordable. Credit: istock The figures were similar for non-dependent men in the 35-44 age group, with 97,131 living at home, an increase of 12 per cent. For women in the same age group, 47,491 lived at home, up 13 per cent. Along with job insecurity and the pandemic, the increase in rental prices also made it hard for people to find an affordable property suited to their needs, Dr Churchill said. “It’s just easier for young people; it’s more affordable, it’s a home you know and if you have needs, it’s quite likely that your family’s already accommodated for those things. So I think that’s really indicative of how poor the housing market is at the moment.” For the 44-54 age bracket, the number of non dependent men living at home went up by 15 per cent, while for women it rose 14 per cent. While in the 55-64 cohort, there was a 23 per cent increase for men and 22 per cent increase for women who were living at home. Non-dependent children refer to natural, adopted, step or foster children of a couple or lone parent usually living in the household. They also have no identified partner or child of their own usually living in the household. Thousands more young adults are living at home, the census data shows. Credit: Supplied The latest census data also revealed the number of Millennials (25-39 years old) has caught up to Baby Boomers (55-74 years old) as the largest generational group in Australia. In the 1966 Census, nearly two in every five people (38.5 per cent) were Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers and Millennials each have over 5.4 million people, with only 5,662 more Baby Boomers than Millennials counted on August 10, 2021. Over the last 10 years, the Millennials have increased from 20.4 per cent of the population in 2011 to 21.5 per cent in 2021. Baby Boomers, meanwhile, have decreased from 25.4 per cent in 2011 to 21.5 per cent in 2021. Millennials are of working age and are upskilling, representing 40 per cent of people attending vocational education, including TAFE, and 48 per cent of people currently serving in the regular service of the Australian Defence Force.
Holiday letting has worsened the housing crisis There are 36,000 empty homes currently listed on Airbnb in Sydney and Melbourne alone, according to activists. Jimmy Thomson Contributor Jun 30, 2022 https://www.afr.com/wealth/personal...s-worsened-the-housing-crisis-20220628-p5axds As various state and federal politicians tweak, tinker and generally nibble round the edges of the housing shortage, there is an elephant in the room – or, more vividly, the back seat of the car. Much has been made of the fact that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was raised in social housing. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was raised in social housing. Alex Ellinghausen However, this week on the ABC’s Insiders program, The Guardian journalist Amy Remeikis commented that if the prime minister’s mother was trying to work through the social housing system as it is now, he might well have been sleeping in a car. Then she offered simple but studiously ignored information: a large part of the problem is caused by short-term holiday letting. It’s a simple, irrefutable fact that holiday letting hosts have been allowed, if not encouraged, to eviscerate the rental market by turning tens of thousands of residential properties into short-term lets. The recent COVID-created hiatus in tourist arrivals has allowed our politicians to forget that a significant chunk of the present housing calamity is largely of their creation. Renters have been kicked to the kerb – collateral damage in the scrabble for tourist dollars. It’s hard to tell if Australian politicians were duped by the “sharing” industry or they knew perfectly well that the income garnered from tourists would come at the cost of long-term tenants. It will only get worse For years, the true facts and figures about holiday lets and their effects on the broader community have been fudged, massaged and obscured. But then the tourism tide receded and the truth was exposed like a beached whale. As tourists disappeared from city centres and beachside suburbs, rents went down and availability went up. This cause and effect has been confirmed by academic studies. According to activists InsideAirbnb, there are now 36,000 empty homes listed on Airbnb in Sydney and Melbourne alone. And there are other platforms such as Stayz that do not attract the same level of scrutiny. If you think those homes might be better used to accommodate families who are living in tents and cars, it will only get worse when the tourists return and more tenants are evicted to make way for them. Investors can make a lot more out of short-term rentals than they do from residential lets, but only, experts say, by having multiple properties and treating them as a business rather than a hobby earning pin money. This has nothing to do with sharing, so let’s bury that misnomer right now. The top 50 “hosts” in Sydney have portfolios that range from 16 to 170 homes. But if you accept that short-term holiday lets push up rents and drive out tenants with the more professionally run properties making the biggest profits, isn’t this the perfect time to retire the “sharing” myth? Australia has one of the least regulated short-term letting sectors in the world. So, would driving some holiday lets back into the residential market be such a bad thing? Politicians are loath to interfere with how we manage the properties we own. But what about banning “head tenants” from renting flats and houses then sub-letting them as holiday homes? That would be a start in achieving some kind of balance. It should be a source of national pride that we have a prime minister who was raised in public housing. But it is appalling to think that some future leaders might have had similar aspirations, if only they were not sleeping in cars.
Divorce applications up as marriages hit the rocks By Caitlin Fitzsimmons July 3, 2022 https://www.smh.com.au/national/divorce-20220628-p5axco.html Nearly 200,000 people have filed for divorce across Australia in the past two years, the highest number in more than a decade, as relationships succumb to extended lockdowns and other COVID-related stresses. The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age can reveal the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia received 47,016 divorce applications during the 2021-22 financial year, which ended on Thursday. That came on top of 49,625 in the previous financial year. It marks a big rise from the 2019 financial year, the last full year before the Black Summer bushfires and the pandemic, when there were 44,432 divorce applications. Each application represents two people. Relationships Australia NSW chief executive Elisabeth Shaw, commenting on the national trend, said the pandemic brought a lot of stress and conflict, and also forced couples to spend time together and face problems that might have been “on a slow burn” previously. “People were thrown together when they normally might be distracted by busy lives and being outward-focused,” Shaw said. “Some couples and families did really well, they surprised themselves with really heartwarming moments where it was like a rekindling and a reevaluation of the goodness that they have together. Others felt like all the chips were really down, and they couldn’t rely on their partner and there was nothing left for them.” The highest number of divorces was 1976, after no-fault divorce took effect in Australia. Australian Institute of Family Studies researcher Dr Lixia Qu said the highest divorce rate for the married population besides 1976 was in 1996, which she attributed to the stress of the early 1990s recession. Qu said the current rise was not surprising given the past two years saw “some people really struggling financially … and people working from home and remote schooling”. The court figures represent all divorces in Australia, except those in Western Australia. Divorces are registered by the court, even when the financial settlement and parenting arrangements are agreed upon separately. However, it does not reveal the divorce rate because this depends on the underlying number of marriages in the population. It also ignores separations of de facto relationships, which are increasingly common. The 2021 census data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last week revealed 11.5 per cent of people over the age of 15 are in a de facto relationship. This has risen from 9.4 per cent in 2011 and 10.4 per cent in 2016. The Separation Guide chief executive Angela Harbinson estimated the true divorce numbers were double, when you included separations of de facto relationships. Harbinson said a policy response was warranted to offset the negative effects of separation and divorce, including “higher rates of crime, suicide and depression, long-term poverty and workplace productivity losses”. Using methodology from a British study, she estimated the societal cost to Australia was $860,000 a year. The census showed 46.5 per cent of the population aged over 15 is married, down from 48.1 per cent in 2016. Divorcees account for 8.8 per cent of the population, while 36.5 per cent have never been married, both up from 2016. There are now more than a million one-parent families, representing 15.9 per cent of all families compared with 14.5 per cent 25 years ago. Bec Chappell, photographed with her dog Alfie, split up from her husband during the pandemic.Credit:Janie Barrett Bec Chappell, 34, from Castle Hill in Sydney, separated from her husband at the end of 2020. He told her he was unhappy in the relationship in January, before the pandemic hit Australia, and they stayed living together during lockdown. “As we were going to bed one night he said, ‘I don’t think I want to be with you any more,’ and I said, ‘OK, that’s fine, I don’t want to be with someone who doesn’t love me,’ ” Chappell said. “In hindsight my reaction definitely shocked me and told me more about where I was in the relationship too.” The couple had been together for 10 years and married for three, but did not yet have children. Chappell has a new love interest but first took the time to get to know who she was as an individual before rushing into another relationship. Divorce coach Carla Da Costa, who works with clients nationally to help them with the practical and emotional aspects of separation, said she had a steady stream of clients during the pandemic and most were from Sydney and Melbourne where they experienced the longer lockdowns. “Most inquiries and new clients are coming to me expressing that the lockdown forced them to reassess their relationship,” Da Costa said. “A lot of people were really on that hamster wheel of life and distracting themselves with taking children back and forth to school, their careers, and outside hobbies and social life.” Da Costa said the new generation was less likely to settle for unsatisfying relationships and could find fulfilment after divorce in “a second chapter of life”. This was the case for Melbourne woman Lauren Cox, 44, who is using a pseudonym. Cox, who was married for two decades and has two school-aged sons, said the pandemic heightened her dissatisfaction with her role in the family. “I felt like I was being taken for granted almost as not just the homemaker but the doer of everything at home with the kids and cooking and all of that … there was an underlying expectation that I would pick up the little bits and pieces,” she said. The couple tried counselling but “it felt awkward and too far gone” and they separated in 2021. Cox said if it hadn’t been for the pandemic, they might still be together – but she thinks they wouldn’t be as happy as they could be separated.
They're talking about Covid here as the main reason, but imo, increasing financial stress plus new housing being built increasingly on smaller plots, with little room for gardens and trees and roomy outdoor recreation, adds to the problems. People need space around them and space from one another at times. But typical of inflation; paying more for housing and getting less in return. More breakups adds further to housing problems, now it requires adding another house to the same family size, so for 200,000 divorces, that's another 200,000 dwellings required.
Opinion Census reveals government’s failure to keep up with changing Australia Liz Allen Demographer July 4, 2022 https://www.smh.com.au/national/cen...-with-changing-australia-20220704-p5aysn.html Few, if any, surprises emerged with the first drop of census data this week. Especially for the keen observers of social trends. Social changes rarely happen quickly. Some notable exceptions apply here, of course, such as marriage equality. But we saw the increase in same-sex marriages coming, because of legislative change that enabled it; it was predictable. Changes to who we are and how we live are generally incremental and can be seen coming, as things like immigration and population ageing undergo planned or expected progression. Trends, after all, point to where social phenomena is heading because they show the path issues have taken over time. majority of Australians have a connection to another country, either by birth or through their parents. India and Nepal emerging among the fastest growing countries of origin was foreshadowed by migration statistics, years in the making. Family sizes shrinking, lone-parent households increasing, families being redefined without children, women still doing Herculean levels of housework while being the most qualified of the sexes, home ownership out of reach for most young people, and more apartment living – it was all coming, decades in the making. The census says valuable stuff to help inform policy and practice. But despite its clear signposts indicating how Australia is changing, and what Australia needs, policy isn’t keeping up. We’re a nation in flux; ever-changing and moving. Never standing still. This is the nature of humanity. And time. If social change advances like a tortoise, this country’s social policies are like a slug covered in salt bathing in a pool of froth. Done for and useless. Australians are adapting and finding solutions to difficult problems that government policy is failing to address. Multiple families living in a single home together, for example, to cope with housing affordability or to avoid the problematic and costly aged care sector. This adaptation is not because of anything government is doing – it’s because it is not doing enough. Census after census over the past 20 years has shown home ownership declining. Likewise, the gender gap in household work of 15-plus weekly hours has increased since 2006, with women continuing to do more unpaid work than men, despite increasing rates of labour force participation among women. These issues are not new. And yet the data shows the policies that have been put forward to address them have clearly been inadequate. The data shows we need better policies to address housing affordability, gender inequality, childcare, and income support, to match the needs of the population. Tinkering around the edges of complex policy areas – a couple of extra weeks of paid parental leave, for example – just doesn’t cut it. It results in very little change in the census data, which reflects how we live our lives, and respond (or not) to various government policies. Earnest investments towards housing and economic security will help address the disconnect. Universal childcare will make parenting more than just the domain of mothers and will help children as well as help gender equality. A properly paid parental leave scheme that encourages fathers to spend time as the primary carer will help address the rising levels of housework carried out by women. Census data clearly shows governments have been pretty terrible at doing their job. You can’t hide from data. The census is essential in contemporary Australia. The national enumeration provides unique information about the number, composition and geographic spread of the Australian population and its needs. Nothing beats the census. Thanks to the 2021 census, for example, there is now data on the mental health needs of the nation. More than 2 million Australians live with long-term mental illness, with women more often affected than men. This data is crucial to identifying need and providing care. But who’s listening and taking note? The census shows Australians are making their own way, as best as can be, with outdated social supports. The way we do things must change, to best meet the needs of the Australian people. Here’s to the next census reflecting improved government policy that changes our lives for the better.
Growing number of reliable tenants find themselves homeless in rental squeeze By Rebecca Turner Posted Yesterday https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-03/growing-number-of-reliable-renters-getting-evicted/101201328 Law student Diane Palmer says WA's tenancy laws give landlords even more power in today's tight rental market Perth law student Diane Palmer never expected to become homeless at the age of 52. Key points: A limited supply of rental properties is driving rent increases Reliable tenants are being evicted, to make way for someone willing to pay more Community legal groups want more protection for tenants But that's how she found herself earlier this year, after she was evicted from her home of two-and-a-half years. "One would think that, if you pay your rent, you take care of the property, how can you be evicted?" she asked rhetorically, "because you don't agree to an unlawful condition and [you] stand up for your rights." Ms Palmer said this condition was a request in a new lease contract by her landlord to access her property several times a week, for an unspecified period of time, and with little or no notice. Ms Palmer says she refused to give in to the landlord's request to access the property several times a week, with little or no notice.(Pixabay: Sephelonor) Refusing to sign a new lease under those conditions, Ms Palmer tried unsuccessfully to find a new rental property to move to, a tough job in the Perth market where vacancies are around 1.1 per cent and rents are soaring. When she was eventually evicted, it was a costly and emotional experience. She said she was forced to give up many of her pets, pay big bills for removalists and storage units for her possessions, and rely on the kindness of friends for somewhere to sleep. In their negotiations, she said, she felt her landlord used his ability under Western Australia's laws to terminate her lease for no reason, to pressure her to accept his requests. "These laws give the landlord a lot of power and, with the situation at the moment, the tenant has even less power because they can't just choose to up and go," she said. 'No-grounds terminations' under scrutiny The power to end a lease without giving a reason is known as a "no-grounds termination". Overseas and around Australia, some governments have already done away with no-grounds terminations — or signalled their intention to do so — to give greater long-term housing security to tenants. For example, such provisions have been outlawed in Germany and Scotland, while the UK government last month announced it intended to abolish them in England. The cost of renting in Perth has dropped and more properties are coming onto the market.(ABC News: Kathleen Dyett) The Victorian government broadened the reasons a landlord may give to terminate a lease when it decided to remove no-grounds terminations several years ago. It's a move being considered by the West Australian government in a long-awaited review of rental tenancy laws. Under these laws, landlords can terminate a periodic lease at any time via a no-grounds termination, which means they don't need to provide a reason but must give 60 days' notice. Landlords also do not need to provide a reason for not renewing a fixed-term tenancy, but must give 30 days' notice. 'A lot of it is just about money' Tenants' advocates such as Danika Adair-La and Paul Harrison of the Northern Suburbs Community Legal Centre say they are seeing how the laws are being used to evict good tenants in today's tight rental market. A dispute over an end-of-lease inspection and a water bill has led to a renter being accused of defamation.(Supplied: Pexels) Ms Adair-La said no-grounds terminations used to be a minor part of her court workload but now comprised about 40 per cent. "We're finding a lot of it is just about money," she said. "A lot of landlords are finding that, if they terminate this tenancy, they can re-let it the next week for $100-plus a week more and, at the moment, everybody is desperate. "They will find somebody to pay that." It's not just the increased number of no-grounds terminations which has shocked her, but also the type of people who are being evicted. Danika Adair-La and Paul Harrison are dealing with a big increase in no-grounds terminations.(ABC News: Rebecca Turner) "We're having professionals [who] earn good money, have never been in rent arrears, keep the property well maintained, may have lived in the property for eight, nine years and they're finding themselves with a non-renewal of lease and are having to find somewhere else to go," she said. Mr Harrison said the prospect of being evicted or not getting a good reference was preventing many tenants from speaking up about problems with a property. More and more Australians are facing a future of renting.(ABC News: Markus Mannheim) "People are having to make tough decisions — keep a roof over my head but put up with a very poor property and substandard conditions or do I try and enforce my rights and not get my lease renewed," he said. Law change will lead to higher rents: REIWA Community legal centres are mounting a campaign for the abolition of no-grounds terminations, with Ms Adair-La saying she supported the Victorian move to give landlords a broader range of options to remove a tenant. But the real estate industry opposes any change to the laws. REIWA president Damian Collins said removing no-grounds terminations would take away the rights of property owners and exacerbate Western Australia's rental problems. "The private sector provides 85 per cent of all rental properties," he said. REIWA president Damian Collins is opposed to changing rental tenancy laws.(ABC News: Jessica Warriner) "So, every time you take away a right that a property owner has — and if at the end of a lease term if they don't want to extend that lease, they should have that right — well, then all that will simply mean is fewer investors in the market and rents are going to go up, it's simple maths." The West Australian government is expected to release its recommended changes to the laws before the end of the year. By then, Ms Palmer should be well and truly settled in her new home, after signing a lease for a new property last week. It took Diane Palmer about six months to secure a new rental property. After six months of trying to find a new home, she said she was feeling good about her future after positive negotiations with her new landlord. "I feel like a respected human being," she said. "I did not feel respected at all in my previous relationship with the landlord."
First home buyer grants help vendors more than buyers Michael Bleby Senior reporterJul 7, 2022 https://www.afr.com/property/reside...help-vendors-more-than-buyers-20220707-p5azsn Australia’s lack of a comprehensive housing policy – unlike Singapore, Canada, Ireland and England, which all have one – has led to one-sided actions such as federal and state governments pumping $20.5 billion into first home buyers over the past decade in a way that has benefited existing homeowners more than anyone else. In contrast to countries with over-arching housing policies, Australia’s first home buyer measures pull forward the decisions of people already likely to buy – boosting demand and pushing up prices – rather than making ownership more accessible for lower-income people, a new Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute report shows. Of the seven other countries compared with Australia in the report only Canada, like Australia, has no systemic reliance on supply side measures. Brook Mitchell Further, while demand measures were in the past balanced with steps to increase the supply of affordably priced for-sale housing, such as state-commissioned housing development, government mortgage issuance, and regulatory preference for first home buyer private lending, these mostly ended in the 1970s, the report says. As countries the world over reset their economies at a time of pandemic and consider the housing infrastructure they can provide once global migration resumes at scale, the report makes clear that – questions of fairness aside – Australia’s relative inability to provide secure housing for lower-income people puts it at a competitive weakness to other countries. “Unlike most of the international comparison countries, Australia stands out, as it overwhelmingly uses demand-side instruments and lacks a strategic framework,” said report author Chris Martin of UNSW City Futures Research Centre. “And unlike countries such as Finland and Singapore, Australian governments have resisted prioritising first home buyers’ genuine interests by reforming tax settings that favour their housing market competitors: established homeowners and would-be rental investors.” The measures Australia has adopted are not all bad. Some countries have even larger first home buyer grants and concessions than this country, but they balance them with supply-side measures in more cohesive housing strategies, the report says. Singapore, for example, also offers grants and tax concessions like Australia, but the country also had a strong reliance on use of public land to develop new housing on which owners buy apartments with tradeable leases on the land, it says. In addition to demand-boosting measures, the UK also has a heavy reliance on public housing development, along with right-to-buy schemes allowing social tenants to purchase their dwellings and regulation of its land use to ensure development of suitable new housing stock, the report says. Of the seven other countries compared with Australia in the report – the others being Finland, Germany and the Netherlands – only Canada, like Australia, has no systemic reliance on supply side measures, but that country makes less use of inflationary grants and tax concessions. Since 1963, first home buyer grants have totalled $36.8 billion and the $20.5 billion federal, state and territory governments have spent in the past decade alone in stamp duty concessions and grants such as the Commonwealth’s HomeBuilder payments could have funded the construction of about 60,000 social housing dwellings without inflating housing prices. The money could also have funded the purchase of 137,000 shared-equity homes, but even these “revolving fund” schemes that recycle money back to the government, which then pays it out to new clients accelerate ownership for moderate-income households, rather than making it easier for lower-income people to buy, the report says. Not all supply-boosting practices used overseas can be applied to Australia – especially not rent-to-buy schemes that assume a large stock of public housing available to be sold to tenants. Stricter regulation of land-use planning and conditions around land disposal could be more practical in Australia, however, the report says. But the biggest increase in homeownership would come from reducing benefits such as the capital gains tax deduction on investment housing and negative gearing, which preference existing homeowners, the report says. “In Australia, pro-ownership policies were, from the 1980s to 2000s, reconfigured to advantage existing owners, including as investors in rental housing: notably the 1986 exemption of owner-occupied housing from the then-new capital gains tax, and the 1999 CGT discount for investor landlords,” the report says. “While some currently operational Australian first home buyer-assistance measures benefit recipients without representing unjustifiable and inflationary expenditure, significantly widening homeownership access cannot be achieved without substantial changes to tax and social-security policy settings that currently preference existing homeowners over aspiring homeowners.“
Housing crisis leaves opal miners with no choice but to live in a tent By Shannon Corvo Posted 6 hours ago https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-10/opal-miners-homeless-amid-housing-crisis/101212136 Homeless man Aaron Buschmann says every day is a "nightmare".(ABC Riverina: Shannon Corvo) Opal miners Aaron and Skye Buschmann never thought they would be homeless. Key points: Opal miners Aaron and Skye have been living in a tent for six months They've been told it's a five to seven-year wait for social housing Homelessness Australia says anyone can end up without accommodation Their day job involved scouring the outback in search of the precious gems. "We've been through Coober Pedy, Andamooka and met some of the best miners in the country," Mr Buschmann said. "Been around Lightning Ridge, and just the beauty of digging opal, finding that colour — you can't go wrong." Mr Buschmann on the hunt for opals.(Supplied: Aaron Buschmann) Mr Buschmann said they were living comfortably in a house on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula until the rent was increased by $170 a week. They travelled to South Australia to find a house to rent but had no luck and eventually ended up in New South Wales. The married couple have spent the past six months in a tent at Wilks Park, a floodway in the Wagga Wagga's north. "It's a nightmare," Mr Buschmann said. "You're waking up in a recurring circle — you just go around and around doing the same thing every day. "How do you get a job when you're trying to get a home, get a roof, get your next feed in your stomach?" Mrs Buschmann with her dog, Opal.(ABC Riverina: Shannon Corvo) Mr Buschmann said people did not understand that anyone could become homeless. "We were in one of the richest areas in the country and we're out here," he said. "So it just goes to show, all those people saying it can't happen to them — it can happen to them. "We've been in a high position and now we're down in a low position." Mr and Mrs Buschmann are on a list for social housing, but have been told they face a five to seven-year wait. He said the Salvation Army had offered temporary accommodation at Young in return for some farm work, but he needed to make sure the hours did not breach his disability pension requirements. Mr Buschmann says his living situation is making it harder to find work.(ABC Riverina: Shannon Corvo) Worrying figures, bleak outlook Figures from campaign group Everybody's Home show the rental vacancy rate in regional NSW is sitting at less than one per cent. Rents have increased by 10 to 20 per cent. Homelessness Australia spokesperson Kate Colvin said the issue was getting worse. "More and more people, particularly in regional areas, are sleeping in tents," she said. Ms Colvin said 50 per cent of people visiting homeless services said they were experiencing financial difficulties, while 30 per cent were fleeing family and domestic violence. "Australia has a huge shortage of social housing that means there's not a safety net for people who get squeezed out of the rental market," she said. "Homelessness Australia, along with other organisations, are calling for the federal government to invest in 25,000 social housing properties a year because we have a shortfall of social housing of more than 400,00 properties." She said homelessness was increasing and she didn't want Australia to end up in a situation like the United States, where it was very common for low-wage workers to be homeless or living in a caravan. "I don't think that's what we want for Australia, but unfortunately that's the way we're going," she said. Some communities are frustrated with the number of boarded up vacant houses. (ABC Riverina: Shannon Corvo) Charles Sturt University economics professor John Hicks said he expected the cost of living to increase. He said governments should build more housing but communities needed to look after people doing it tough. "That inflation is going to continue for some time yet so it's becoming increasingly difficult for households, particularly at the lower end of the socio-economic scale, to make ends meet," he said. "It appears that things in Europe are getting somewhat worse — that's adding to cost pressures. "We are seeing those cost pressures flow through into our own prices and, in addition to that, we have flood disasters that will again give quite a boost to prices, as a lot of crops have been wiped out."
‘I’m in shock’: Ramsgate Beach townhouse sells for $1.75 million By Kate Burke July 9, 2022 Key points There were 546 properties scheduled to go to auction in Sydney on Saturday. A dozen bidders turned out to compete for a Ramsgate Beach townhouse that sold for $450,000 above reserve. An Annandale house in need of a renovation sold for $5.5 million. A townhouse in south Sydney sold for $1.75 million at auction on Saturday, shocking both the crowd and sellers who expected a more conservative result in the cooling property market. A dozen bidders turned out to compete for the three-bedroom townhouse in Ramsgate Beach, which sold for $450,000 above the reserve price. A Ramsgate Beach townhouse sold for $1.75 million at auction on Saturday.Crediteter Rae It was one of 546 Sydney properties scheduled for auction on Saturday. By evening, Domain Group recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 54.5 per cent from 341 reported results, while 115 auctions were withdrawn. Withdrawn auctions are counted as unsold properties when calculating the clearance rate....... Continues....... https://www.smh.com.au/property/new...e-sells-for-1-75-million-20220708-p5b04o.html
After 50 years in Earlwood, ‘cruel’ strata bill threatens elderly couple with homelessness By Caitlin Fitzsimmons July 10, 2022 https://www.smh.com.au/business/con...couple-with-homelessness-20220705-p5azcv.html An elderly Sydney couple will be forced from their home of 50 years and face potential bankruptcy after their body corporate voted for upgrades to their building’s windows that they could not afford. Nitsa and Spiros Tzavellas, pensioners aged 78 and 81, are desperately trying to sell their three-bedroom flat before a deadline of mid-August when bankruptcy hearings will resume in court. Nitsa and Spiros Tzavellas may face bankruptcy after they could not pay a strata levy. Credit:Steven Siewert “I’m very stressed, I’ve lost a lot of weight and my husband is very sick, and he’s very worried too,” Nitsa said. Consumer advocates say the case shows why reform is needed to curb the power of owners’ corporations and strata companies who manage properties under strata title, such as apartments. The saga started in 2019 when the owners’ corporation – also known as a body corporate, strata committee or owners’ strata plan – voted to upgrade the old aluminium windows and raise a special levy to pay for it. The cost allocated to the Tzavellases’ apartment was $18,234.17. Nitsa at the time told her neighbours that she and Spiros could not afford it and begged them to reconsider the improvements or come to a special arrangement. Court documents show the couple paid instalments of $660 a fortnight for much of 2020 and 2021. The full pension for a couple is only $1488.80 a fortnight. Nitsa said she stopped paying on legal advice when a lawyer, acting pro bono, promised to fix it. Mission Australia financial counsellor Isis Khalil, who is advising the couple, said the lawyer started proceedings in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal but did not see it through, and it simply added to the legal costs claimed by the other side. In October 2021, the owners’ corporation took the couple to the Local Court, seeking $24,004.06 for strata levies, administrative charges and expenses, 10 per cent interest, and legal costs. The court found the couple had to pay $23,066.77, inclusive of legal costs. In 2022, strata company Bonded Strata on behalf of the owners’ corporation moved to collect the debt by forcing the couple into bankruptcy in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. Bonded Strata told The Sun-Herald it had instructions from its client not to comment because of the pending legal proceedings. The couple have lived in the Earlwood apartment for 50 years. Credit:Steven Siewert Khalil said the couple won a six-week reprieve from bankruptcy proceedings at the end of June. But if they can’t exchange contracts with a buyer within that time, there will be bankruptcy and a fire sale. “If bankruptcy proceeds, they will become homeless,” Khalil says. “The trustees will go in and they will just sell it for peanuts. They just have to sell it for more than the debt and the solicitor’s fees, which is growing daily and is at about $44,000 now. Plus there would be tens of thousands of the trustee’s charges. That’s not a good outcome.” The Tzavellases bought their unit in Earlwood in the inner west for $22,200 in 1972. On paper, the median price for a unit in Earlwood is $777,000, but the couple is trying to sell in a falling market, and the property already passed in at auction in June with no registered bidders. Financial Counselling Australia director of policy and campaigns, Lauren Levin, said an analysis of bankruptcies in the 2018-2019 financial year found 12 per cent of all bankruptcy applications were by owners’ corporations. “I’m sure most people don’t realise how common body corporate-initiated bankruptcies are and would be shocked that such a sledgehammer approach to debt collection is being used, when there are other much better options,” Levin said. Jane Foley, a senior lawyer at Financial Rights Legal Centre, said it was probably even higher. She had a colleague check one court list in Sydney last Thursday, and they found a third of listings were strata bodies bankrupting individuals. Meanwhile, the couple have health problems, with Nitsa the sole carer for Spiros, who has been incapacitated by three strokes, the most recent earlier this year. Foley said owners’ corporations and strata companies had other ways to deal with debt in cases of financial hardship. The first option is a payment plan that is affordable to the owner. The second option is borrowing to cover the owner’s share and putting a caveat over the property, so the debt would ultimately be recouped when the property is eventually sold. Foley said the bankruptcy threshold was currently $10,000, but consumer advocates were pressing to increase this to $50,000. Khalil said the law should change to protect elderly pensioners from strata-initiated bankruptcies. Levin said: “This story shows the cruel indifference of an owners’ corporation and the lack of hardship-informed regulations despite government reviews. “How did they expect 80-year-old aged pensioners to raise $20,000? Are they expected to rob a bank or not eat for the year?”