Latest news with #housingcooperatives
ABC News
11-07-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Voters call for action on rising rents, house prices as Tasmanian state election nears
At 28, Amelia Bird would love to become a home-owner in Tasmania — but she isn't hopeful. Half of her income is spent on rent, with little left over to save for a house deposit. "It's hard … when you scroll through the (real estate) listings and you see the prices and they just keep going up and up and you're still not close to having a deposit you would need," she said. Ms Bird has been a renter since she was 16 and at times found herself without a home and couch surfing. Reflecting on the impact of housing insecurity, she said "you don't want to find yourself in a situation where you don't have a home". She said even short periods without housing can have lasting consequences, such as gaps in your rental history, which can make it harder to secure the next home. Stable housing is her number one financial priority. Ms Bird would like to see the next government look beyond simply building more public housing and consider supporting the establishment of housing co-operatives like the ones she grew up in. "Having lived in two co-ops in Tasmania, the housing was so affordable …. because your rent is according to your income," she said. Ms Bird said the Hobart cooperative she lived in had around 15 households all living on a single large property, with some shared infrastructure. She said some of the benefits of the model are a strong sense of community and mutual support among cooperative members. "Co-operative housing presents a lesser burden to government … primarily because it is self-managed," she said. Tasmania's housing market has changed over the past 10 years. According to CoreLogic, the median house value has almost doubled from $315,688 (June 2015) to $609,265 (June 2025). Data from the Tenants Union of Tasmania shows the median rent across the state has gone up from $266 per week (March 2015) to $469 per week (March 2025). That's an increase of 76 per cent. The rental vacancy rate in Hobart is 0.6 per cent, according to SQM research. "It's become increasingly difficult for people to keep a roof over their head but also juggle the other costs with housing including keeping the lights on and putting food on their table," said Ben Bartl, principal lawyer with the Tenants Union of Tasmania. According to Homes Tasmania's May data, there are 5,097 households waiting for social housing. Priority applicants are waiting on average 97 weeks. Three years ago, the Liberal government committed to building 10,000 social and affordable homes by 2032. So far, 4,381 homes have been completed. But counting towards that target are things like vacant residential land lots. "We don't think that is an accurate indicator; the data should be just homes that have been completed," said Ben Bartl. He said there are better ways to assess how many homes need to be built. The ABC's Your Say platform has heard from voters wanting housing reforms. Jane said "build social housing now". "Stop suburban sprawl. Build more high-density housing and improve public transport," said David. "Put a levy on unoccupied houses. Holiday homes and Airbnb should attract additional taxes," said Anne. Jon said planning for housing "should be streamlined". Among the election promises from the Liberals is a plan to deliver an extra 200 modular homes. The party has also vowed to lift the first home buyers' grant to $30 000. Both Labor and the Liberals are promising to "cut red tape" so Tasmanians can build a home faster. Labor has also promised to extend existing stamp duty concessions to newly built houses and release a monthly planning dashboard that compares council performance on housing and development approvals. The Greens have promised to put an "immediate" stop to new whole-home short-stay conversions. The party has also promised to establish a real estate and rental standards task force to address issues like rental bidding and false advertising. Two years ago, the national cabinet agreed to strengthen renters' rights across Australia to improve the lives of the one-third of Australian households who rent. The Better Deal for Renters included developing a nationally consistent reasonable grounds for eviction. There was also an agreement to move towards limiting rent increases to once a year and phasing in minimum rental standards. Ben Bartl said in Tasmania, there had been no progress on the reforms that were not already legislated. He would like to see the next state government look at stabilising rents. He suggests Tasmania should adopt the same model as Canberra, where rent can only be increased by CPI plus 10 per cent.
Irish Times
30-06-2025
- Automotive
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, June 30th: On a new approach to house building, beating gridlock and free speech
Sir, – Average car usage in Ireland is about 15,000km per annum, each car using 1,000 litres of petrol, or 9,000 kWh equivalent. Most new houses, being remote from public transport, are occupied by families with two cars, meaning 18,000 kilowatt hours are expended on their travel needs, or about four times the energy consumption of a 100sq m house. Achieving high thermal performance standards for houses comes at a significant cost, but any economies in terms of energy usage are utterly outweighed by the concomitant reliance on private car transport. In this regard, it would be just to re-evaluate dwellings and include the average necessary transport energy associated with each dwelling before awarding a rating. READ MORE The process of determining where houses are to be built largely founders on the issue of marketability, where every design decision is taken primarily with a view to meeting a contrived set of needs, as articulated by estate agents representing the 'average family': this need not be so. Ireland has many not-for-profit systems for delivering housing: housing associations, housing co-operatives, local authority social housing. Some encourage end-user participation in the process, but rarely to a sufficient degree. It is opportune to question the market-led provision of dwellings. Advanced systems of co-operative housing exist in Zurich, Vienna and throughout Europe. One method of facilitating end-user participation in housing co-operatives would be the reintroduction of long-term ground rents by the State on the extensive land bank which is in State ownership, moderating construction costs; by amortising the cost of land over, say, 60 years, one significant component of the cost of dwelling provision is addressed. Much of the historic core, and inner suburbs, of Dublin was built by small-scale developers, typically carpenters and masons, who built short terraces on leased land. There is a case for arranging that large-scale housing development of, say, more than six dwellings be undertaken only by Approved Housing Bodies, such as housing associations and co-operatives. In order to address the imbalance in the nature and quality of housing, a moratorium could be placed on the acquisition of housing development land by developers, leading to a moderation in the cost of construction land, and a plurality of housing. – Yours, etc, PAUL ARNOLD, Ranelagh, Dublin. Sir – Most working mornings, the M50 grinds to a near halt, particularly during the peak hours of 7:30-9am. It's a familiar frustration for thousands of commuters. But, in recent weeks since schools closed for the summer holidays, the difference has been striking; traffic flows more freely, journeys are shorter and the usual stress on drivers has eased noticeably. This pattern is neither new nor surprising. Yet it raises an important question: has the Government seriously studied how school-related traffic contributes to daily congestion and, more importantly, what might be done to reduce it? One possibility that deserves serious attention is the provision of free and reliable bus transport for post-primary students. Such a policy could yield multiple public benefits. Fewer school drop-offs would reduce overall traffic volumes and vehicle emissions, making our roads safer and cleaner. Parents, no longer tethered to school run routines, could commute more efficiently, lowering stress and increasing productivity. Moreover, when older students travel independently, they gain resilience, confidence and a stronger sense of personal responsibility – skills that serve them well beyond the school gates. In short, smarter transport policies for young people could create a ripple effect of benefits across Irish society, from reduced pollution and road congestion to healthier family routines, to better outcomes for students themselves. I believe we need to ask, are we investing in the right systems to get us and our children to where we need to go? – Yours, etc, DR BRIGID TEEVAN, Aughrim, Co Wicklow. Costs over aesthetics Sir, – 'Cost', announces Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers, will 'take priority over 'aesthetics' in future State infrastructure projects' (News, June 27th). Ah yes, we have identified Dublin city's most pressing problem – too many beautiful (but costly) buildings springing up all over the place. Despite the implication inherent in this ludicrous statement, I am wracking my brain to think of a single visually appealing edifice that either the State or private enterprise has constructed in the past 60 or 70 years. I can quite easily, however, recall at least 20 beautiful, architecturally significant heritage structures that the State (through the working apparatus of local government) has seen fit to destroy and the ugly, flimsy, grotesquely expensive, wasteful eyesores that replaced them. The idea that the State has ever prioritised how beautiful a building is over what it costs is gaslighting of the first rank. As your excellent guide to 'Who owns Stephen's Green' (June 7th) illustrated in minute detail, the sad fact is that the State, city councils and local government haven't given a second thought to 'aesthetics' since some time around the turn of the century. The result is there for us all to see in the pitiful hodgepodge of architectural styles and general dereliction on display across the capital. – Yours, etc, SIMON O'NEILL, Bray, Co Wicklow. Contactless travel Sir, – I've been following the discussion of various contactless payment travel options from Cambridge to Belfast to Berlin to Corfu. I'm currently visiting Luxembourg where all public transport is free all of the time for everyone. No complicated payment system and citizens and visitors are rewarded for using a more environmentally sustainable transport option. – Yours, etc, DARA HOGAN, Greystones, Co Wicklow. Missing you already Sir, – Joe Duffy has retired, sending our best to him. But Ireland has lost its therapist and now there's no one to call to say how much we'll miss the man we called about everything. – Yours, etc, FIONA HICKEY, Ashbourne, Co Meath. Play that again, Van and Neil Sir, – Last Thursday I fulfilled a lifelong ambition by hearing Neil Young and Van Morrison live in concert. Like many people in that cold field in Malahide, I've been enjoying their music for nearly 50 years. As your reviewer said, their voices have never sounded better and both men were surrounded by amazing musicians (' Neil Young and Van Morrison at Malahide Castle: Decades on, these voices have never sounded better ,' June 27th). This made it all the more disappointing that each chose to sing so many songs – albeit great songs – that many of their audience didn't know. We were wet, we were cold, some of us have bad backs, sore hips, were afraid to sit (even for the very few hours that the grass was dry) in case we couldn't get up again, but we felt no pain during Gloria and Harvest Moon and Old Man. There just weren't enough of the songs that brought us to Malahide in our droves. These wonderful artists are still producing great new music and that, in itself, is inspirational. But could we not have heard a few more of the songs that have been inspiring us all of our adult lives? Some part of me feels that we, their lifelong fans and audience, deserved more consideration. The opportunity may never come again. It really would have been a marvellous day for a moondance... – Yours, etc, MÁIRÍN O'KEEFFE, Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim. Ireland and EU membership Sir, – Philip Brady (Letters, June 28th) comments that maybe it's time for those countries that feel as strongly as Ireland about the Gaza situation to take unilateral action. Does he also think that on other matters where there is no agreement that again countries can go it alone? The whole point of the EU is we act in a united way for the benefit of all. The UK did not like this stance and took the ultimate action and ended up leaving. We cannot have our cake and eat it with regard to our membership of a union that has made a huge difference to the country. It's a slippery slope he advocates to only do those things that we agree with and ignore those we do not like. We may be an island, but we are also part of Europe and while the decisions made can be unpalatable at times, that's what we signed up for when we joined the EU. We are a member of the EU and in it for the long haul, we can still shout loud and strong to have things changed from the inside, unlike our neighbour. –Yours, etc, JOHN BERGIN, Oxton Wirral, England. Sir, – Surely I am not the only one who feels we are compromising too much to humour the US administration? Last week, a two-pronged assault on global safety was launched: the defunding by the US of the global vaccine alliance, and the redirection of 5 per cent of Nato members' budgets into military spending. We have endless evidence that weapons tempt their owners to use them. Having lived in the Global South and seen people's bodies severely damaged, or their lives cut off, by disease that is preventable by vaccination, while learning from pandemics how swiftly viruses cross borders, to cut vaccination programmes and development is to sow death. No one is safer today. And although the cost to our economies of standing up to bullies may be great, the value of life is priceless. – Yours, etc, WENDY PHILLIPS, Co Dublin. Free speech and working in the US Sir, – Fifty-two years ago, The Irish Times published my letter deploring US complicity in the coup against Salvador Allende in Chile. Four years later I was granted a student visa to pursue a PhD at Harvard; I've subsequently married an American, had children and grandchildren here and obtained US citizenship. In 2025, my excoriation of US actions would likely forestall my obtaining a US visa. So much for our vaunted First Amendment, and our pontifications about freedom of speech. – Yours, etc, GERARD S HARBISON, United States. Sir, – Reading Geraldine Gregan's letter regarding social media and US visas (Letters, June 25th), I was returned to the memory of my arrival in New York in 1985: How sweet is recall of innocence – and equally sweet – that of innocence lost. Let me explain: Soon after I arrived, I enrolled and completed the bartending course with the American Bartending School, with the promise of referrals to jobs on offer at that time, spring 1985. The school sent me for an interview at Charlie O's in Manhattan. I arrived and waited for my interview . The manager walked in, looked at me, and without even approaching me, or interviewing me, he said to his assistant manager: 'He's fine, give him a schedule.' Likewise at the Department of Motor Vehicles, I presented my British learner permit, with the expectation of getting a US learner permit. The lady glanced at my UK document. 'That'll do, we'll send you a licence,' she said. Soon after, it arrived. I relate these stories to present a time when there was a certain innocence, and what I felt was an endearing sense of trust, all of which changed on September 11th, 2001: Innocence lost! As I taught an English literature class at La Salle Academy, suddenly, the 13-year-old students raced to the windows. In the near distance were those monstrous planes. The persistent odour of burning and smoke hung in the air for many months. America changed. Documents now scrutinised, checked every six months, even when in the same job for years. I look back sweetly at those casual times when documents got just a glance and getting hired to do a job was uncomplicated. While I acknowledge the need for stringent security measures since that fateful day, I feel that now in the Trump era, the scrutiny goes too far – files and more files, with information gleaned from phones and from sources that are not the government's business to probe. Long-established US citizens are not exempt or safe from investigation. Am I over-stretching to suggest images of East Germany's Stasi with warehouses full with thick and ever thickening files on the population's lives? Having said all that, America is and will always be for me, a sweet and satisfying memory. – Yours, etc, PADDY FITZPATRICK, Cathedral Ave, Cork. Hospital appointments Sir, –Recently a woman I know, who has a long-term serious illness, had an 8.30am hospital appointment, although she lived more than three hours' drive from the venue. This meant that she had to get up at an unearthly hour and drive there, mostly in winter darkness on secondary roads, adding to the stress and danger of having a traffic accident. The alternative would have been for her to drive the previous day and seek accommodation for the night in a hotel or B&B nearer to the hospital, adding to the cost, but reducing the stress somewhat. Surely it is not beyond the bounds of possibility for planners to come up with a system that allows those patients who live further from the hospital to have appointments scheduled for later in the day? This wouldreduce the stress and the danger of motor accidents and, in some cases, the cost of an overnight stay, a cost that can be quite considerable for some patients. – Yours, etc, BOBBY CARTY, Templelogue, Dublin.
