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
$280 a week rental sparks warning
James MacSmith realestate.com.au (No paywall)It’s one of the infallible rules of life in general – if something sounds too good to be true it is. And, as most Aussies have discovered, especially during this cost of living and housing crisis, this statement also rings true when it comes to buying or renting a home. And so it came to pass for those clicking frantically, with naive optimism, on a unit advertised for half the average rent expected. The studio apartment listed via Ray White in Peakhurst, in the St George area of southern Sydney, 21km from the CBD hit the market for just $280 per week.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/cheap-280-a-week-rental-spark…
# NSW, Rent.Rebuilt Lismore student housing offers relief from record-high rent costs
Catherine Piltz Courier Mail (No paywall)As regional housing costs hit record highs, Lismore students have been thrown a lifeline with the anticipated reopening of a flood resilient accommodation complex. The 27-unit Sirius College at Southern Cross University on Military Rd is expected to be ready next month, rebuilt to withstand future floods after being gutted in the 2022 disaster. New data released on January 20 by the REA Group shows the median weekly rent in regional NSW has jumped to $600 – a 5.3 per cent hike over the last 12 months. The squeeze is even tighter for those wanting an apartment, with regional unit rents climbing six per cent to a median of $530 per week.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/nsw/rebuilt-lismore-student-…
# NSW, .Rental assistance failing as older Aussie crisis data exposed
Tom Bowden realestate.com.au (No paywall)The nation’s broken rental assistance support program is failing our older Australians, with many set to be plunged into homelessness if action isn’t taken as the number of Australians aged over 75 accelerates at nearly twice the rate of population growth. They’re the findings of a new study by the Retirement Living Council, which has renewed its call for urgent reform to the Commonwealth Rent Assistance program. Fresh data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows the number of Australians over 75 who receive CRA but remain in rental stress has risen nationally by 116 per cent since 2013.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/rental-assistance-failing-as-…
# NSW, Rent.One in nine new homes in England built in areas of flood risk, study shows
Helena Horton The Guardian (No paywall)One in nine new homes in England built between 2022 and 2024 were constructed in areas that could now be at risk of flooding, according to new data. The figures show the number of homes being built in risky areas is on the rise – a previous analysis showed that between 2013 and 2022, one in 13 new homes were in potential flooding zones. The research comes with the government under huge pressure to deliver new affordable housing, amid signs that the climate breakdown is accelerating.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/18/one-in-nine-…
# International, .The New ‘Poor Door’: Amenity Fees Are Too High for Affordable Housing Tenants
Patrick Spatter City Limits (No paywall)Tenants who get affordable housing through the city’s lottery or a rental assistance voucher often can’t afford amenity fees in new mixed-income luxury buildings, creating what one described as a “two-tiered system” within New York City rentals. “How can I be loitering in my own home?” Joseph Jones, 61, is standing in the well-furnished lobby of his apartment building on Bruckner Boulevard in the South Bronx. The clock is ticking. According to a building policy, tenants can only spend 15 minutes at a time hanging out in the building’s lobby. Just downstairs in the basement is a lounge, game room, and gym where tenants are welcome to stay as long as they like. It just costs $250 a month.
https://citylimits.org/the-new-poor-door-amenity-fees-are-too-hi…
# International, Utilities water energy internet.Cold and expensive v hot, cheap and eco-friendly: the contrasting histories of home heating in the UK and Sweden
Aimee Ambrose and Jenny Palm The Conversation (No paywall)The new year in Sweden began with some record-breaking cold temperatures. Temperatures in the village of Kvikkjokk in the northern Swedish part of Lapland dropped to -43.6°C, the lowest recorded since records began in 1887. Yet for the majority of Swedish households, heating is not an issue. Those living in the multi-household apartment blocks that characterise Sweden’s towns and cities enjoy average temperatures of 22°C inside their homes, thanks to communal heating systems that keep room temperatures high and costs low. For many households, heating is charged at a flat rate and included in the rent they pay.
https://theconversation.com/cold-and-expensive-v-hot-cheap-and-e…
# History International, Utilities water energy internet.Developers will only bring us more car-dependent sprawl
Jon Reeds The Guardian (No paywall)It is disappointing to see the huge urban sprawl at Gilston, north of Harlow, described as rejecting “car‑centric models” (A new town for the 21st century?, 9 February). Big, ultra-low-density developments like this, far from rail-transit networks, are inevitably car-dependent, despite claims by their promoters. It takes more than building the primary schools necessitated by such schemes to get people out of their cars, especially as walks to school are extended by the very low densities secured by huge consumption of productive farmland.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/feb/17/developers-will-…
# International, .What the end of no‑pet clauses means for renters
Josh Elgin BBC (No paywall)When lockdown turned life upside down for Jordan Adams, one absence weighed on him most. Living alone in a ground‑floor flat in Sutton, south London, he found himself not only cut off from friends and family, but from his dog Jasmine. "Being a single man and living on your own in your 20s at that point was really difficult," Adams says. So when the chance came to look after his beloved family dog, he asked his landlord for permission. But a rejection came back almost immediately, with no explanation offered.
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Pets.