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
Queensland family living in a tent in Bundaberg say they're not considered homeless
Johanna Marie ABC (No paywall)A regional Queensland family leasing a powered tent site at a caravan park has been told it is no longer considered homeless and not eligible for crisis accommodation. Simone and Steve Owen moved to Bundaberg, about 400 kilometres north of Brisbane, with their two children earlier this year after the lease on the property they rented at Townsville for seven years was not renewed. Despite applying for "about 100 properties" since January, the couple was unable to secure a home in the town and couch surfed with family and friends until moving to the tent site one month ago.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-10/queensland-tent-family-no…
# Australia, Land lease communities.Landlords eligible for $3,500 rebates for putting rooftop solar on rentals under Queensland scheme
Alex Brewster ABC (No paywall)A solar rebate program estimated to shave hundreds of dollars annually off renters' power bills is set to be rolled out by the Queensland government. The $26 million "supercharged solar for renters" scheme will provide rebates of up to $3,500 to eligible landlords who install rooftop solar on their rental properties. The pre-election commitment from the LNP is estimated by the government to save 6,500 households around $700 on energy bills, with applications opening on Friday morning.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-12/queensland-landlord-rente…
# Australia, Rent, Utilities water energy internet.Housing crisis forcing majority of Australians to choose between rent and survival
Samantha Healy realestate.com.au (No paywall)An alarming 60 per cent of Aussies are experiencing housing stress or insecurity, with a staggering amount of homeowners and renters forgoing heating or cooling, meals, even doctors appointments, just to keep a roof over their heads. The latest Everybody’s Home report ‘Breaking Point’ surveyed over 1100 Aussies ahead of the festive season, and it revealed the “drastic” measures many were taking to stay on top of housing costs alone. “Housing costs in Australia are so high that people are making drastic trade-offs to cling onto keeping a roof over their heads – from reducing energy use and driving, to skipping meals and delaying doctor appointments,” Everybody’s Home spokeswoman Maiy Azize said.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/housing-crisis-forcing-majori…
# Hot topic Australia, .Techno Park residents win zoning battle to remain in Williamstown affordable housing estate
Jesse Thompson ABC (No paywall)Residents of an affordable housing estate in Melbourne's industrial west have won the legal right to remain in their homes, years after they were first threatened with eviction because of a zoning issue. The tenants live in a former migrant hostel known as Techno Park, which sits in the shadow of a row of decommissioned Mobil fuel storage tanks in Williamstown. Having moved in under the impression the homes were lawful, many were blindsided when their local council ordered them to immediately leave in May 2023, claiming it had become aware people were living in the industrial-zoned area.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-10/techno-park-affordable-ho…
# Australia, Eviction, Rent.Young couple earning six-figures ditch Sydney’s soaring housing market for van life
Hannah Wilcox news.com.au (No paywall)A young Aussie couple has swapped for sale signs for the streets, fleeing Sydney and its housing crisis in hopes of a more financially free life. Sam Savage, a stonemason, and his partner Jess Jacobs, a personal trainer, were priced out of the city, unable to compete with soaring rents and home prices. Instead, they decided to follow their dream of travelling together in a home on wheels – a $20,000 campervan, built by the couple over two years.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/investing/young-couple-ear…
# NSW, Rent.'Zero bills' homes praised by housing secretary
Nadira Tudor and Jodie Halford BBC (No paywall)A sustainable housing development promising "zero energy bills" should be the blueprint for new homes across the country, the government's housing secretary has said. The site at Carpenters Yard in Epping, Essex, has 113 homes in a "pioneering microgrid community" where every house has a heat pump, solar panels and a centralised battery system to reduce energy bills to zero. The development was built by private developer gs8 and was financed by Octopus Capital. Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for Housing, said the Labour government was consulting on the "future homes standard" and asking "how we can make more homes capable of generating their own energy in the way that this development is?".
# International, .The housing crisis is forcing Americans to choose between affordability and safety
Ivis García The Conversation (No paywall)Picture this: You’re looking to buy a place to live, and you have two options. Option A is a beautiful home in California near good schools and job opportunities. But it goes for nearly a million dollars – the median California home sells for US$906,500 – and you’d be paying a mortgage that’s risen 82% since January 2020. Option B is a similar home in Texas, where the median home costs less than half as much: just $353,700. The catch? Option B sits in an area with significant hurricane and flood risk.
https://theconversation.com/the-housing-crisis-is-forcing-americ…
# International, .Won’t somebody please think of England’s poor £2m homeowners? Oh, wait – everyone already is
Jonathan Liew The Guardian (No paywall)The new “mansion tax” announced by Rachel Reeves in last week’s budget is estimated to affect around 165,000 property owners, and on current trends the British media is forecast to have interviewed every single one of them by the end of the year. How else to explain the chorus of squeals we’ve been exposed to from the impoverished victims of Esher and Pimlico, whose only crime was to own a house worth over £2m in an era of egregious wealth inequality?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/02/homeowners…
# International, .