Daily Buzz: Saturday, 24 February

PropertyBuzz, your daily dose of property news.

The New South Wales council areas most at risk of natural disaster, how renting has changed in the past 25 years, and inside Melbourne’s big auction week

Welcome to Property Buzz! Today is Saturday, 24 February.

– The NSW government has released its first Disaster Mitigation Plan, outlining strategies to reduce the rising costs of natural disasters and improve community preparedness.

– The plan identifies the areas most vulnerable to disaster-related damage, with storms and floods creating the highest risk to homes and infrastructure, while heatwaves and bushfires posing the highest risk to life.

– Of the state’s 120-plus councils, the 20 local government areas most at risk from multiple hazards include the Central Coast, Tweed, Clarence Valley, Ballina, Northern Beaches, Penrith, Hawkesbury, Inner West, Lake Macquarie, and Blacktown.

– Among the many measures it’s pursuing, the government is developing localised disaster adaptation plans, boosting preparedness campaigns, building a new local government toolkit, developing early warning systems, and reviewing building codes and insurance levy arrangements.

To the rental market now, and a new report has underscored how much things have changed for Australian tenants in 25 years.

– New analysis of census data by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute looked at the availability of rentals to people in the lowest 20 per cent of incomes and found that 15 years ago, the country was looking at a shortage of roughly 200,000 dwellings that were appropriately priced for that cohort. In 2021, that deficit had risen to almost 350,000 dwellings.

– As a result, 82 per cent of households on very low incomes were deemed to be in housing affordability stress in 2021 – and that’s when pandemic conditions were such that rentals were in much greater supply.

– Aligned with these findings, another trend emerged in the research: When it comes to the rental market, things have changed for the higher earners in Australian society as well.

– According to the latest census, nearly a quarter of renters come from top income levels – a vast increase since the 1996 census. The report noted that high-income renters are serving to further squeeze things at the bottom end of the market, with some of the homes that are affordable to lower incomes taken up by higher earners.

– And in the sales market, Melbourne is expected to host nearly half of Australia’s total auctions for the week ending 25 February 2024, with 1,405 homes scheduled to go under the hammer, a 40 per cent increase from last week.

– Nationally, auction volumes are up 35 per cent from the previous week and 17 per cent higher than the same time last year, making it the busiest auction week since December 2023.

– Sydney will also see a surge in auctions with 1,039 homes set to go under the hammer, a 50 per cent increase from the previous week.

That’s Property Buzz for today.  See you again on Monday, 26 February, for your daily dose of Property Buzz.

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