Cooking and heating without gas: What are the impacts of shifting to all-electric homes?
Gas connections for all new housing and sub-divisions will be banned in Victoria from January 1 next year. The long-term result of the state government’s significant change to planning approvals will be all-electric housing. The ACT made similar changes early this year, in line with a shift away from gas across Europe and other locations, although the NSW Premier Chris Minns has baulked at doing the same.
To deliver enough affordable housing, what must a national strategy do?
The Albanese government came to office promising action on housing. Its A$10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund is now stuck in the Senate, with the Greens demanding more ambitious funding and reforms. The government is also working on its promised National Housing and Homelessness Plan.
NIMBYism in Sydney is leading to racist outcomes
Residents of the affluent east and north of Greater Sydney have strongly resisted housing development in their suburbs. This NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) resistance has led to urban sprawl in areas of Western Sydney with a well-documented lack of services, infrastructure and jobs.
What to do if your builder goes bust?
Residential construction companies in Australia have been toppling like dominoes, and this has left many depositors in a very difficult financial position.
You can have both heritage protection and more housing
Heritage conservation has been blamed for making the housing crisis worse by standing in the way of new, higher-density housing. But protecting heritage and increasing housing should be complementary objectives.
Creating a safer engineered stone industry
Safe Work Australia is currently considering a ban on engineered stone following a meeting with Australia’s Work Health and Safety (WHS) ministers in late February as well as a public consultation on the proposed ban, which concluded in May.
NSW housing projections lower than first indicated
NSW Government estimates indicate that the number of new homes to be built in Greater Sydney in the next five years is currently at 128,450, well under the required targets given the current housing crisis.
Rent freezes and rent caps will only worsen, not solve our rental crisis
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To fix the housing crisis, we need to change how we build houses
Have we reached peak affordable-housing-debate in Australia? Or is it a case of that old mountaineering saying: the fog is thickest just before the summit?
