Affordable housing a distant memory in areas once considered cheap

Date
    September 8, 2014


Rent levels in Melbourne are seeing low-income families priced out of even the city's once affordable suburbs such as Dandenong and Frankston, a Senate inquiry into housing prices will hear on Tuesday.      :(

And with rent on a one-bedroom flat now topping $300 a week in suburbs including Balwyn and Brunswick, more must be done to create affordable options, housing groups say.

The Tenants Union is among a dozen housing, academic and community groups presenting on Tuesday at the Melbourne hearings of the Senate's inquiry into affordable housing.

Its policy officer James Bennett said rent levels in Melbourne were so high most people on welfare benefits would be lucky to find anywhere they could afford.

Department of Human Services data for "affordable lettings" in March 2014, the most recently available figures, shows 0.4 per cent of one-bedroom rentals and only 12 per cent of three-bedroom rentals were affordable in metropolitan Melbourne.

Affordable housing is usually defined as 30 per cent or less of household income going to cover the cost of rent or a mortgage.

Mr Bennett said all households receiving income support across Melbourne were likely to be beset by "housing stress", because of rising rents over the past decade.

"Rents are already too high for those receiving Newstart," he said, and federal spending cuts and changes to the welfare payment system meant "young people and families looking for work are increasingly precarious".      :(

Also presenting at Tuesday's hearing will be Council to Homeless Persons policy manager Sarah Toohey. She said the "safety valve" of public housing for those in financial trouble no longer worked.

"The average wait time for public housing for someone in priority need is 10 months, and if you can't get on that priority list, it's unlikely you will be housed," she said.

Ms Toohey said the suburbs that people on low incomes "used to go to look for affordable housing - Dandenong, Frankston, Preston" - no longer offer the same level of affordability.

She said suburbs like Dandenong would, a decade ago, have had eight in 10 properties affordable for those on Centrelink payments. Now it would be more like one in 10, she said.

"The private rental market is broken," Ms Toohey said, because "it doesn't provide to low-income households."

She said a decline in federal funding for public housing, and state government selloffs leading to 200 fewer dwellings this year, were making it harder for those on low incomes. The waiting list for public housing of 35,000 people had also barely moved under consecutive state governments, she said.

Among those lucky enough to get a public housing apartment was Donovan Willis, who spent a year in and out of homelessness last year, while also caring for his nine-year-old daughter.

"We couch surfed for a little while, then [housing agency] HomeGround put us in hotels for a while," Mr Willis said.

Homeground was finally able to get him and his daughter into the Richmond housing estate six months ago, after a long wait. "It has made life immeasurably easier - it's incredible," Mr Willis said. "It was just impossible on unemployment benefits ... rent in Melbourne is just absurd, [especially if you are] trying to raise a child."

RMIT urban policy expert Jago Dodson will also present to the Senate hearing and said Australia was failing to meet its obligation to provide everyone with access to housing they could afford.      :(

He said that while there was an oversupply in some areas, such as top-end apartments and homes, more affordable options had all but disappeared.

He said there had been a bipartisan political decision to accept a deregulated housing market, leaving the poor to fend for themselves. "People on very low incomes struggle in the private rental market, and there is virtually no policy measures in place to address their housing circumstances," he said.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/affordable-housing-a-distant-memory-in-areas-once-considered-cheap-20140908-10e1mo.html#ixzz3Cl3F0sJA

The lack of affordable housing is a problem that must be addressed. Anything that puts upward pressure on house prices needs to be looked at, and abolished if possible.

IMFULLOFIT could always get a job.  that tends to make housing more affordable!

With the housing bubble we've got, I don't see how an assertion that housing affordability is a distant memory can stand up.
The buyers can't all be Chinese or local investors. There must be some owner occupiers among them, so for them it's affordable.

It seems we've got two choices now, neither of them palatable.
One is we keep pushing city limits outwards, because that's where first home buyers are generally going. The consequence of this is more & more highway and rail infrastructure.
The second is that we push people back to the centre of the cities and make them live in high rise.

The above is based on people, most people having no choice but to live in the major cities.
Of course, we could have another go at decentralisation. Remember that. It seems to have worked OK for Albury-Wodonga.

This is an issue that will only get worse and is the responsibility of both parties.

It's too late to do anything now - the bubble is large, private debt is out of control and no-one cares.

Bam wrote on Sep 9^th, 2014 at 1:51pm:

The lack of affordable housing is a problem that must be addressed. Anything that puts upward pressure on house prices needs to be looked at, and abolished if possible.

No party will address it. They're all funded by the banks. They want you to be a rent-slave or a mortgage-slave.
Only a people's revolution will ensure that people get their land rights back.

gone wrote on Sep 9^th, 2014 at 7:45pm:

Bam wrote on Sep 9th, 2014 at 1:51pm: The lack of affordable housing is a problem that must be addressed. Anything that puts upward pressure on house prices needs to be looked at, and abolished if possible. No party will address it. They're all funded by the banks. They want you to be a rent-slave or a mortgage-slave. Only a people's revolution will ensure that people get their land rights back.

you could always get a job and ear *shock horror* MONEY and buy one yourself!

bogarde73 wrote on Sep 9^th, 2014 at 3:24pm:

With the housing bubble we've got, I don't see how an assertion that housing affordability is a distant memory can stand up. The buyers can't all be Chinese or local investors. There must be some owner occupiers among them, so for them it's affordable.

You're ignoring the equation for renters. They are the ones that find housing unaffordable. Rents tend to increase over time whereas house repayments merely fluctuate in line with interest rates.


Quote:

It seems we've got two choices now, neither of them palatable. One is we keep pushing city limits outwards, because that's where first home buyers are generally going. The consequence of this is more & more highway and rail infrastructure. The second is that we push people back to the centre of the cities and make them live in high rise. The above is based on people, most people having no choice but to live in the major cities. Of course, we could have another go at decentralisation. Remember that. It seems to have worked OK for Albury-Wodonga.

Decentralisation is the best long-term solution. It is ridiculous that we can't find affordable housing within reach of acceptable employment options despite living in a country with three people per square kilometre. There's a lot of desert, sure, but if we ignore the desert we still have more habitable land than France.

The problem then is encouraging regional development. Jobs are the key. Nobody's going to want to move to an area with high unemployment. Companies are not going to want to move to an area without employees.

gone wrote on Sep 9^th, 2014 at 7:45pm:

Bam wrote on Sep 9th, 2014 at 1:51pm: The lack of affordable housing is a problem that must be addressed. Anything that puts upward pressure on house prices needs to be looked at, and abolished if possible. No party will address it. They're all funded by the banks.

It is more accurate to assert that the major parties are unwilling to address the issue because they both have many MPs who own investment properties. The average number of houses owned per MP in Federal Parliament is about four.

bogarde73 wrote on Sep 9^th, 2014 at 3:24pm:

With the housing bubble we've got, I don't see how an assertion that housing affordability is a distant memory can stand up.

It has been a problem for years. The Howard government had a Productivity Commission inquiry into housing affordability that produced its final report in 2004. A decade later, nothing has been done.

longweekend58 wrote on Sep 9^th, 2014 at 8:45pm:

gone wrote on Sep 9th, 2014 at 7:45pm: Bam wrote on Sep 9th, 2014 at 1:51pm: The lack of affordable housing is a problem that must be addressed. Anything that puts upward pressure on house prices needs to be looked at, and abolished if possible. No party will address it. They're all funded by the banks. They want you to be a rent-slave or a mortgage-slave. Only a people's revolution will ensure that people get their land rights back. you could always get a job and ear *shock horror* MONEY and buy one yourself!

At 8-10 times the average wage (compared with 2-3 way back when) - think I would rather rent and save the difference thanks.

longweekend58 wrote on Sep 9^th, 2014 at 8:45pm:

gone wrote on Sep 9th, 2014 at 7:45pm: Bam wrote on Sep 9th, 2014 at 1:51pm: The lack of affordable housing is a problem that must be addressed. Anything that puts upward pressure on house prices needs to be looked at, and abolished if possible. No party will address it. They're all funded by the banks. They want you to be a rent-slave or a mortgage-slave. Only a people's revolution will ensure that people get their land rights back. you could always get a job and ear *shock horror* MONEY and buy one yourself!

yeh get a job that pays 500 net a week with 2 or 3 kids to feed and then pay off a 600K mortgage because some china man kept outbidding you at every auction.

shut the bugger up idiot.

Cousin employed as senior property manager for a major real estate company in Wagga Wagga.  In March 2014, 35 Chinese Nationalists were hosted by the company that had flown from Sydney to Wagga Wagga for the day. The specific reason was to buy property, and to rent the property back.   By the time they flew back to Sydney on their 5:00pm flight, 12 units and 28 homes had been sold.  Happy times for the real estate company!!

But not one unit or home was purchased under the terms for owner/occupier, they were all going to be leased back out.   This is happening in every town and suburb in Australia, and Australian politicians are allowing it to happen.  Then they tell the citizens there is a housing crisis and shortage, and the stupid people are buying the propaganda.   Well, maybe if they stopped the Chinese flying into Australia on 48 hour property buying sprees, then we wouldn't have a property and housing shortage - would we?   LOL

Wonder how long the "she'll be right, mate" attitude will last, before Aussies wake-up to what's happening in their own country.

culldav wrote on Sep 10^th, 2014 at 12:23pm:

Cousin employed as senior property manager for a major real estate company in Wagga Wagga.  In March 2014, 35 Chinese Nationalists were hosted by the company that had flown from Sydney to Wagga Wagga for the day. The specific reason was to buy property, and to rent the property back.   By the time they flew back to Sydney on their 5:00pm flight, 12 units and 28 homes had been sold.  Happy times for the real estate company!! But not one unit or home was purchased under the terms for owner/occupier, they were all going to be leased back out.   This is happening in every town and suburb in Australia, and Australian politicians are allowing it to happen.  Then they tell the citizens there is a housing crisis and shortage, and the stupid people are buying the propaganda.   Well, maybe if they stopped the Chinese flying into Australia on 48 hour property buying sprees, then we wouldn't have a property and housing shortage - would we?   LOL

what happened to that stupid libbo mole who was supposed to be looking into this ?

Somehow only the pollies don't know this is happening.

And they expect us suckers to keep voting for them. :(

Sir lastnail wrote on Sep 10^th, 2014 at 11:41am:

some china man kept outbidding you at every auction

so you keep claiming, but you've never once put up any facts to support this claim ...

Move out to Rural or Country Australia

1. Housing is 75% cheaper
2. Wages are the same rate
3. Less people in Line-Ups
4. You actually feel like you're driving when going from one place to another and its quite scenic.
5. You don't have people living so close to you that you can hear them having sex.
6. No pollution
7. People smile
8. Australian Cities are where they keep the Prisoners
9. Australian Cities are just a 'Processing Plant' of everything that comes from the Rural/Country.
10. Build a House out of Straw Bale you idiot ! :P

Yeah - but jobs are hard to find.    It's in the bush that you find the real unemployment.

My country house, when finished on five acres, will go on the market for about $660k... all offers reasonable considered...

A fabulous hand crafted home built on five acres two hectares, using local materials (decomposed granite) to create beautiful golden concrete blocks for walls, large dimension ironbark exposed rafters with timber panel ceilings, gravity fed water, septic, rear horse paddock, two dams and all necessary pumps with the top dam feeding through underground pipes to gardens at the click of a switch in the garage, separate utilities shed for ride on mower and equipment (23 hp rideon included at a negotiated extra cost), separate car port, garage and attached shed currently used for temporary residence (can be converted to granny flat), possibility of another small residence in site prepared uphill where caravan currently sits (can be part of deal), solar hot water, gas cooking (always available if power fails), gravity fed water from large holding tank fed from extra tanks around buildings, fenced yards with horse or livestock paddock at rear, front rock garden with waterfall, over 100 trees planted including rare Red Cedars, abundant bird life and excellent country views to nearby range, sealed road to front gate, 20 minutes to major towns and fifteen to the ocean, two hours to snow in winter.

A steal at $660k.......

Sir lastnail wrote on Sep 10^th, 2014 at 12:31pm:

culldav wrote on Sep 10th, 2014 at 12:23pm: Cousin employed as senior property manager for a major real estate company in Wagga Wagga.  In March 2014, 35 Chinese Nationalists were hosted by the company that had flown from Sydney to Wagga Wagga for the day. The specific reason was to buy property, and to rent the property back.   By the time they flew back to Sydney on their 5:00pm flight, 12 units and 28 homes had been sold.  Happy times for the real estate company!! But not one unit or home was purchased under the terms for owner/occupier, they were all going to be leased back out.   This is happening in every town and suburb in Australia, and Australian politicians are allowing it to happen.  Then they tell the citizens there is a housing crisis and shortage, and the stupid people are buying the propaganda.   Well, maybe if they stopped the Chinese flying into Australia on 48 hour property buying sprees, then we wouldn't have a property and housing shortage - would we?   LOL what happened to that stupid libbo mole who was supposed to be looking into this ? Somehow only the pollies don't know this is happening. And they expect us suckers to keep voting for them. :(

The politicians the Australian people (or I should say sheep) vote in to represent them and manage their country, are not even legally obliged to keep records of any property sold under $200 million.  Therefore, tens of thousands of Australian properties are being sold to wealthy foreign investors, and rented back to the Australian people, and our political representatives don't even KNOW how many properties in OUR country are owned by foreign investors.    ;D    ;D

This is one of the most intellectually and incompetent stupid things a country could ever do - not know what quantity of property is owned by foreign investment in YOUR OWN country.   :D

culldav wrote on Sep 10^th, 2014 at 1:54pm:

Sir lastnail wrote on Sep 10th, 2014 at 12:31pm: culldav wrote on Sep 10th, 2014 at 12:23pm: Cousin employed as senior property manager for a major real estate company in Wagga Wagga.  In March 2014, 35 Chinese Nationalists were hosted by the company that had flown from Sydney to Wagga Wagga for the day. The specific reason was to buy property, and to rent the property back.   By the time they flew back to Sydney on their 5:00pm flight, 12 units and 28 homes had been sold.  Happy times for the real estate company!! But not one unit or home was purchased under the terms for owner/occupier, they were all going to be leased back out.   This is happening in every town and suburb in Australia, and Australian politicians are allowing it to happen.  Then they tell the citizens there is a housing crisis and shortage, and the stupid people are buying the propaganda.   Well, maybe if they stopped the Chinese flying into Australia on 48 hour property buying sprees, then we wouldn't have a property and housing shortage - would we?   LOL what happened to that stupid libbo mole who was supposed to be looking into this ? Somehow only the pollies don't know this is happening. And they expect us suckers to keep voting for them. :( The politicians the Australian people (or I should say sheep) vote in to represent them and manage their country, are not even legally obliged to keep records of any property sold under $200 million.  Therefore, tens of thousands of Australian properties are being sold to wealthy foreign investors, and rented back to the Australian people, and our political representatives don't even KNOW how many properties in OUR country are owned by foreign investors.    ;D    ;D This is one of the most intellectually and incompetent stupid things a country could ever do - not know what quantity of property is owned by foreign investment in YOUR OWN country.   :D

How in good faith and conscience can these politicians use Australian housing to prop-up the value of Australia's assets, when they don't even know how many Australians own Australian homes and property, but they use them anyway when making their obviously "dubious" calculations?    ::)  How the hell can they get away with using Australian homes as Australian financial assets, when tens of thousands of these properties are owned by foreigner investors? 

I love it when the truth comes out.......

No one can take the political moral or ethical high road on this subject, because for decades, both the LNP & ALP have known this has been happening, and neither political party has done anything to stop it, or create a system whereby "all" foreign investment in Australia is recorded down to the last dollar - foreign investment below $200million. 

Just imagine, 40 properties sold by one real estate agent in one day, and that is nothing new.  Of course, the agent is now under a massive obligation to rent those properties out at what the owners want; not what the market and area value their rental return capacity to be.

So, a basic 4x4x2 home with a market rental return of $350.00 per week, is now being rented at $450:00, because the Chinese owned wants 85% - 95% return on the property.  Now everyone else in the area also wants $450.00 for their basic 4x4x2 properties, and now we have just seen a property bubble increase in ONE area based not on true valuation of the property, but because of a foreign investor "demanding" higher rents, to which the agent is NOW obligated to get for him/her   

As a recourse, this has also put many properties out of the financial reach of many tenants, or will cause Australian tenants to suffer in other ways, because more of their income goes on paying more rent to a foreign owner, who doesn't care less about high rents here in Australia or how it will effect Australian citizens - so long as they can pay up is all that matters.   ;D   ;D

culldav wrote on Sep 10^th, 2014 at 2:36pm:

Just imagine, 40 properties sold by one real estate agent in one day, and that is nothing new.  Of course, the agent is now under a massive obligation to rent those properties out at what the owners want; not what the market and area value their rental return capacity to be. So, a basic 4x4x2 home with a market rental return of $350.00 per week, is now being rented at $450:00, because the Chinese owned wants 85% - 95% return on the property.  Now everyone else in the area also wants $450.00 for their basic 4x4x2 properties, and now we have just seen a property bubble increase in ONE area based not on true valuation of the property, but because of a foreign investor "demanding" higher rents, to which the agent is NOW obligated to get for him/her    As a recourse, this has also put many properties out of the financial reach of many tenants, or will cause Australian tenants to suffer in other ways, because more of their income goes on paying more rent to a foreign owner, who doesn't care less about high rents here in Australia or how it will effect Australian citizens - so long as they can pay up is all that matters.   ;D   ;D

you just pull those number out of your arse? NO ONE in this country makes 85 - 95% on return on rent ... the market determines the rent, not the Chinese ... the Chinese can demand $5000 week rent for a $500 week property, but they won't get it.

longweekend58 wrote on Sep 9^th, 2014 at 8:45pm:

gone wrote on Sep 9th, 2014 at 7:45pm: Bam wrote on Sep 9th, 2014 at 1:51pm: The lack of affordable housing is a problem that must be addressed. Anything that puts upward pressure on house prices needs to be looked at, and abolished if possible. No party will address it. They're all funded by the banks. They want you to be a rent-slave or a mortgage-slave. Only a people's revolution will ensure that people get their land rights back. you could always get a job and ear *shock horror* MONEY and buy one yourself!

Earn rubbish wages slaving 30 years for some billionaire piece of scum to pay off a ridiculously overpriced piece of land, in a market, totally controlled by greedy bankers? And after 30 years of slaving like a dog, I just get a "title"... but the government still tells me what I can do on "my" land and what not?  ;D  ;D ;D No, my friend, I have a healthy, unfluoridated brain. I wait until the next people's revolution. It will be much cheaper then, possibly free.  ;)

Bam wrote on Sep 9^th, 2014 at 9:10pm:

bogarde73 wrote on Sep 9th, 2014 at 3:24pm: With the housing bubble we've got, I don't see how an assertion that housing affordability is a distant memory can stand up. The buyers can't all be Chinese or local investors. There must be some owner occupiers among them, so for them it's affordable. You're ignoring the equation for renters. They are the ones that find housing unaffordable. Rents tend to increase over time whereas house repayments merely fluctuate in line with interest rates. Quote: It seems we've got two choices now, neither of them palatable. One is we keep pushing city limits outwards, because that's where first home buyers are generally going. The consequence of this is more & more highway and rail infrastructure. The second is that we push people back to the centre of the cities and make them live in high rise. The above is based on people, most people having no choice but to live in the major cities. Of course, we could have another go at decentralisation. Remember that. It seems to have worked OK for Albury-Wodonga. Decentralisation is the best long-term solution. It is ridiculous that we can't find affordable housing within reach of acceptable employment options despite living in a country with three people per square kilometre. There's a lot of desert, sure, but if we ignore the desert we still have more habitable land than France. The problem then is encouraging regional development. Jobs are the key. Nobody's going to want to move to an area with high unemployment. Companies are not going to want to move to an area without employees.

The difference is that the French aren't such submissive, dumb, brainwashed gumbies. They stand up for themselves, they organize protests, strike action all the time and they've made a revolution. They keep fighting for a fair go. They aren't such sheeple. Because the day you stop standing up for a fair go you loose it immediately. Loads of Aussies still assume that all you gotta do is get a haircut, apply for a job, then shut up, be submissive, do what you're told, go home after work, turn on the stupid TV, believe what it says and she'll be right, because somehow the system must be fair...  ::)