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
Struggling renters are all but invisible this election
Peter Mares Crikey (No paywall)Looking at the major parties’ housing announcements, you could conclude that renters don’t vote. Instead, both sides are pitching hard to aspiring first-home buyers, telling them that a vote for Labor or the Coalition will pull the great Australian dream back within reach so they can start paying off their own mortgage instead of someone else’s. Peter Dutton’s promise to allow interest on mortgage payments to be deducted from income tax for the first five years of a mortgage, and Albanese’s offer to facilitate a mortgage on a 5% deposit, may be alluring. But I suspect voters can see the pitfalls.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/04/16/2025-federal-election-housi…
# Australia, .Long-term renting is now the only option for many Canberrans
Lily Nothling ABC (No paywall)Long-term renting is the reality for many in the nation's capital, where the dream of home ownership can prove elusive. But affordability and availability is making life tough for renters from all walks of life. New CoreLogic data shows Canberra remains the second most expensive place to rent a house, at a median cost of $721 a week. For a unit, tenants are paying almost $600 a week. It has created a widening housing divide in a city that boasts the highest weekly median income in the country.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-17/canberra-housing-rental-s…
# Australia, Rent.Renters revealed as ‘real losers’ of election, after Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton quizzed during second leaders debate
Jessica Wang news.com.au (No paywall)Renters have been deemed as the “real losers” of the election, with one rental advocate accusing both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton trying to “walk away from (their) responsibility to make housing a fairer system”. While technically an issue for the states, both the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader were quizzed by the host of ABC’s Australia Votes Leaders’ Debate, David Speers, on whether more federal leadership was needed to help renters facing instability amid a tight rental market and high prices.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/renters-reve…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.How the housing crisis is warping people's view of the future
ABC (No paywall)Madi's had 25 rental applications rejected. Seen absolute horror houses while searching for a rental. It's all driving her to despair. Today, how housing insecurity can alter our sense of agency and how we perceive the world around us.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/allinthemind/housing-cris…
# Audio Australia, .The Suburban Rail Loop is delivering a housing revolution. This is your last chance to shape it
Beat ()The Victorian government's Suburban Rail Loop is set to dramatically reshape Melbourne's cityscape with 70,000 new homes planned around six station precincts. The Suburban Rail Loop Authority has already received nearly 10,000 online submissions during years of community engagement. Under the new planning amendments, developments meeting specific criteria will benefit from streamlined approval processes, cutting through bureaucratic red tape to accelerate housing construction near major transport hubs.
https://beat.com.au/the-suburban-rail-loop-is-delivering-a-housi…
# Hot topic Australia, .UK tenants could see end to excessive rent increases and ‘no fault’ evictions under new Renters' Rights Bill
Phoebe Jobling Manchester Evening News (No paywall)A bill that could stop landlords from making 'excessive' rent increases and demanding 'extortionate' up-front payments from new tenants is now one step closer to becoming law. On Tuesday (April 22), the Renters’ Rights Bill entered the committee stage in the House of Lords today. The bill is an important piece of legislation for anyone who rents their home, and the government’s aim is to give renters much greater security and stability so they can stay in their homes for longer.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/property/uk-tenants…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Residents of London apartment block left without running water for 12 days
Anna Tims The Guardian (No paywall)Residents of an apartment block owned by London’s largest housing association have spoken of their despair after being left for 12 days without running water during repairs to a leaking supply pipe. Social housing tenants and leaseholders in the block of 12 flats in Sidcup, south-east London, said they were unable to shower or clean for nearly a fortnight when their water was shut off by London & Quadrant contractors without warning last month. Some, including older and disabled people, said they were forced to live in saturated rooms with black mould while waiting for the leak to be resolved.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/18/residents-of-lon…
# Must read International, Public and community housing, Rent.‘People love being here’: London development shows harmony between nature and housing
Helena Horton The Guardian (No paywall)Arriving at the Kidbrooke Village housing development in Greenwich on a morning in early spring, the first thing you notice is the sound of birdsong and the scent of blossom. Geese are gently honking in the distance. This was once the Ferrier estate, a postwar housing estate that was demolished in 2009 to regenerate the area. Now the grey, harsh concrete has been replaced by redbrick blocks that sit in a “green corridor” linking Sutcliffe Park in the south with the nature reserves at Kidbrooke Green and London Wildlife Trust’s Birdbrook in the north. Many of the flats overlook new ponds and the expanded wetland of the River Quaggy, which used to flood, putting local businesses and property at risk.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/11/london-devel…
# Hot topic International, .