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
Australia’s rental homes are among our worst “glorified tents” – and renters are paying the price
Carol Valente The Fifth Estate (No paywall)When the cicadas start singing and the mercury climbs, most Australians brace for another summer of scorching days and restless nights. But for millions of Australians, the season also means stifling, inefficient homes that trap heat, drive up bills and endanger health. Yes, this is another article about Australian “glorified tents”. But we’re focusing here on the rental homes that bleed energy, money and wellbeing.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/australias-rental…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Rent, Utilities water energy internet.International student awarded $10,000 in compensation after being evicted from UniLodge accommodation
Elizabeth Byrne ABC (No paywall)An international student, who was evicted from her accommodation after making ongoing complaints about other noisy students, has been awarded $10,000 in compensation by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT). The University of Canberra student lived in UniLodge accommodation after signing an occupancy agreement earlier this year. She was evicted after claims she had breached the agreement, when she was alleged to have threatened other students with a knife.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-11/acat-compensation-for-stu…
# Australia, Eviction.Broken public housing policy not unfixable, former top judge says
ABC (No paywall)The great Australian dream of owning a house has become so intertwined with generating wealth that it's leading the system to failure, and, as a result, the demands on public housing are now chronic. That's according to my next guest, Kevin Bell, a former justice of the Victorian Supreme Court who is now adjunct professor of law at Monash University. Mr Bell has some concerns about the major public housing plans currently underway in Melbourne.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/p…
# Audio Australia, Public and community housing, Rent.Reality check: Promised 67,000 homes a year would send building into freefall
Nicole Gurran The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Another day, another “radical” proposal to fix housing supply and deliver more affordable homes. The promises – to deliver 67,000 additional homes a year, cut rents by 12 per cent and prices by $100,000 – sound wonderful. Even better, the new homes would be well located near transport and jobs. The Grattan Institute’s latest “plan” to lift Australia’s laggard housing construction is essentially an anti-plan.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/reality-check-promised-67-000-ho…
# Australia, .Radical plan to revamp nation’s capital cities – and shave $100,000 off house prices
Shane Wright The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)A radical plan to allow three-storey apartments and townhouses to be built anywhere in Australia’s capital cities would deliver 67,000 extra homes a year, slash rents and give young people a chance at living close to their local CBD. The independent Grattan Institute think tank estimates Melbourne could build an extra 431,000 homes within 15 kilometres of the city centre if property owners were freely able to build three-storey townhouses and apartments without a specialist planning permit.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/radical-plan-to-revamp-n…
# Australia, .Fifty years on, Ieramugadu community continues the struggle for a better world
Giovanni Torre National Indigenous Times (No paywall)Warning: this story may contain images of people who have passed. While much of the nation looks back on the dismissal of the Whitlam government 50 years on, another anniversary is being remembered in Western Australia's Pilbara region. In Ieramugadu/Roebourne, 1500 km north of Boorloo/Perth, the Aboriginal community reflects on five decades since the closure of the Roebourne Old Reserve, known to locals as Goodjaralla. Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation has played an important role in recording their stories. From the early 1900s, government policies forcibly removed Ngarda-ngarli (Aboriginal people) from their traditional Ngurra, relocating families to "Native Reserves". The Roebourne Old Reserve became one such place.
https://nit.com.au/12-11-2025/21237/fifty-years-on-ieramugadu-co…
# History Australia, .What will Labour sacrifice for its housing targets? A standoff in south London is putting it to the test
Anna Minton The Guardian (No paywall)Teekall and his wife are raising a family in Peckham, south London. He runs a successful business as a commercial designer with a studio just down the road, and she works in higher education. Their two boys attend the local primary school. However, the family has outgrown their one-and-a-half-bedroom flat. Although they would like to stay in Peckham, they can’t afford to.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/28/labour-hou…
# International, Rent.Share Housing: A Case for Certainty and Stronger Protections
Nicole Grgas Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Recent reforms to NSW renting laws — including the end of “no grounds” evictions and better rights for tenants with pets — have been widely welcomed, but for the growing number of people who have no option but to live in share style housing, there may be little to celebrate. While share housing can be an affordable alternative, legal protections for this group of renters are confusing, limited, and in some cases, non-existent. Tenant advocates across the state regularly speak with people living in shared houses who are unsure of their legal status or unaware of how few rights they may actually have.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/share-housing-case-certainty-and…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media NSW, Share houses.