Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
LA county reports first drop in deaths of unhoused people in a decade
Sam Levin The Guardian (No paywall)More than 2,200 unhoused people died in Los Angeles in 2024, marking the first time in a decade that the homeless mortality rate decreased in the nation’s most populous county, public health officials announced on Tuesday. The signs of progress come as the county has also reported decreases in the overall unhoused population in a region that has long struggled with a severe affordable housing shortage and one of the worst street homelessness crises in the US.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/10/la-county-homele…
# Must read International, .Local government minister Simon Watts can't guarantee rates cap won't increase social housing rents
Lillian Hanly Radio NZ (No paywall)The local government minister cannot guarantee a rates cap will not cause higher costs for tens of thousands of social housing tenants. Simon Watts said the final rates cap policy was still being designed, but did not anticipate it would cause higher costs for those living in roughly 10,000 council-owned rental homes. Advice from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD) to the Department of Internal Affairs said if rate rises were restricted and replaced with more user charges then the impact would likely be a rent increase for those living in council homes, which was predominantly pensioners.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/589089/local-government-min…
# International, Public and community housing.Market conditions for renters ‘best for six years’
Vicky Shaw Yahoo News (No paywall)(UK) Competition for rental homes has fallen to its lowest level for the month of February in six years, according to a property website. Zoopla said the average number of inquiries per property was 4.8 in February, down from 6.5 last year, meaning fewer renters typically competing for each home. It marks the lowest level in the month of February since February 2020, when there were around 4.2 inquiries per rental home.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/market-conditions-renters-best…
# International, Rent.Want to rent in Amsterdam? You’d better cough up an €8,600 deposit first
Ida Allen-Auerbach Dutch Review (No paywall)It seems the rental horror stories from the Randstad just keep getting worse: an overview from !Woon reports that security deposits go as high as €8,600. In 2025, tenants reported unfair deposits, cameras in the home, exorbitant housing prices, rental scams, and rat problems unaddressed by landlords in Amsterdam. The !Woon foundation, which, according to their website, “informs, advises and supports residents”, found that a majority of reports filed with them concerned security deposits.
https://dutchreview.com/news/rent-in-amsterdam-now-requires-8600…
# International, Starting a tenancy.AI & tenancy advice: Helpful tool or hidden risk?
Brendan Ross Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Whether it’s ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude or Gemini, AI tools are becoming increasingly part of everyday information-seeking and problem-solving. They are always online, and can help break down complex material and offer quick explanations when people are under pressure. It can feel like talking to a confident person, which – as social creatures – we find trust-worthy. They can also create professional and confident-sounding documents, which is an area people can struggle with when trying to address a legal issue or go to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT).
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/ai-and-tenancy-advice-helpful-to…
# Must read NSW, Rent, Tribunal NCAT.I inspected the CHEAPEST house in Sydney, Australia
Brooko Moves (No paywall)For the low price of $1.5 million you can pick up a house with mould, cracks in the wall, a tarp keeping the rain out, and masking tape holding the floor together! BARGAIN!!
# Video, Satire NSW, .Marrickville timber yard to become NSW's largest rental hub
7 News (No paywall)Work is underway to transform a Marrickville timber yard into a $1.5 billion residential hub. All the homes will be rentals, and it's shaping up to be the largest precinct of its kind in NSW.
# Video NSW, .Sydney homebuyers face painful 33-year wait
Owen Raymond realestate.com.au (No paywall)Home buyers have been told to brace for decades of financial pain, with the average purchaser in some Sydney suburbs required to wait until the year 2059 to finally be better off than renters each month. New rental price forecasts have revealed the “crossover date” between monthly mortgage repayments and rents, where repaying a mortgage finally becomes cheaper than paying market rent. The PropTrack revealed that a typical Sydney buyer at today’s prices will have to wait 13 years – until 2039 – for market rents to finally become more expensive than their repayments, at which point owning a home becomes cheaper than renting. This constituted nearly half the length of a typical 30-year mortgage.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/sydney-homebuyers-face-painfu…
# NSW, .