Monday, February 10, 2025

Tag: Housing Affordability

Australian Housing Scheme Still Ambitious

It only took a relationship breakdown for one Victorian father to be forced into sleeping in his car or on a couch, while his children shared a room at his mother’s two-bedroom bungalow.

The daily routine of dropping off and picking up his two young children at school in the next town over from his mum’s made finding stable work challenging.

This hurdle was overcome when in 2018 the trio got a home with Habitat for Humanity, an international affordable housing organisation.

Read the full article in the North West Star.

Re-imagining Affordable & Sustainable Housing in Geelong

More affordable housing options are coming to light that promote collective living and sustainable designs.

Collective housing enables a group of residents to design their own sustainable compact home at cost.

One of the speakers at Geelong Sustainability’s Clever Living seminar on ‘Innovative options for affordable housing’ is Tim Riley, founder of Property Collectives.

Mr Riley said building with a collective allows people to take control of their housing options and create higher quality living spaces at cost.

More affordable housing means homeowners aren’t weighed down by massive monthly mortgage repayments, which frees up their finances to help pay for other household expenses that are often neglected including property maintenance and gutter cleaning in Geelong.

Read the original news article here.

Geelong’s rapid growth could spell housing affordability woes, say experts

Booming house prices in Geelong have raised concerns about the city’s ability to maintain such rapid growth and stay affordable.

Greater Geelong recorded the strongest house price growth in Victoria over the June quarter, according to the Domain Group House Price Report released on Thursday.

The area, which included suburbs from Lara (about 20 kilometres north of Geelong city) to Leopold (10 kilometres to the south) saw the median house price jump 3.7 per cent for the quarter to $530,000.

House prices have increased 15.2 per cent over the past year, much higher than Melbourne’s 0.5 per cent annual growth.

While the area remains much cheaper than Melbourne, some Geelong suburbs, including the city centre and Newtown, were creeping closer to Melbourne prices with medians above $720,000.

Deakin University Geelong planning expert Professor Louise Johnson said buying a home was becoming harder for some long-time residents.

Read the full article in Domain.