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
The crimewave sweeping Britain? Illegal houses in multiple occupation
Aditya Chakrabortty The Guardian (No paywall)Fan of true crime? Then this column is for you. Rather than some cold case told through yellowing newspapers and sepia photos, this one is still happening. And just wait for the plot twist! But first let me outline the key facts; your challenge is to decide who’s guilty. Our crime scene is a redbrick townhouse built in the last years of Victoria – tall, battered but undeniably handsome. It’s in Bowes Park, on London’s northern outskirts – the kind of neighbourhood that on a Friday afternoon offers nice cafes, a community-owned pub and some WFH dads wandering the streets scavenging for ciabatta sandwiches.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/24/crimewave-…
# International, Rent.There were 17,000 rental properties available. A NSW teacher could afford just 550 of them
Alexandra Smith The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Sydney’s rental crisis is now so stark that only 1 per cent of properties would be classed as affordable for essential workers, with no affordable rentals available on the northern beaches or Sutherland for teachers, aged care workers or hospitality staff. The findings of new research from Anglicare Sydney will heap more pressure on the Minns government to deliver substantially more housing for the state’s key workers, who are often on low wages and pushed out to fringe suburbs and forced to commute long distances to work.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/there-were-17-000-rental-pro…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.‘It’s turned Sydney into one giant resort’: City of Sydney to debate Airbnb cap
Jessica McSweeney The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The City of Sydney will be asked to consider imposing a 60-day cap on short-term rentals in an effort to return possibly thousands of homes to the long-term rental market, but not everyone is convinced a cap will work. Greens councillor Matthew Thompson wants Sydney to follow Byron Shire Council’s lead, after it introduced a 60-day cap last year. Like Byron, the cap would apply only to non-hosted stays, meaning entire vacant properties listed as short-term rentals, rather than those who live in the property but rent out a room or granny flat.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-s-turned-sydney-into-one-…
# Hot topic NSW, .'Green bans' saved Sydney's historic buildings and taught economists a lesson
Gareth Hutchens ABC (No paywall)Have you heard how The Rocks precinct in Sydney was nearly demolished in the 1960s and 70s? It boggles the mind to think about it. That historic precinct is the pride of Sydneysiders today. It's one of the things that makes the city special. Walk its streets, and visit its old pubs built from local stone, and you'll travel back in time to Sydney's colonial beginnings. But watch this short video from 1967 to see what city planners of that era had in mind for the area. It was pure vandalism.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-19/green-bans-sydney-1970s-u…
# History NSW, .Rental changes end 'impossible choice' for DV survivors
Kat Wong Yahoo News (No paywall)Survivors of domestic violence will find it easier to escape unsafe homes as part of sweeping changes to rental protections. Abuse survivors who share a lease will no longer have to notify other tenants when they want to leave, under new laws passed in NSW Parliament on Tuesday night. That responsibility will instead fall to their landlord or agent, who will tell the others on the lease after the survivor has left.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/rental-changes-end-impossible-choice-2…
# NSW, Domestic violence, Rent.'Landlord' earns $30 million without owning a single property
9 News (No paywall)It's not a loophole and it's not illegal. Landlording is making plenty of people plenty of cash. James Murphy was once a broke Sydney pastor but he has become a self-described millionaire. Across his properties, Murphy claims he has collected more than $30 million in booking revenue across his Airbnb homes without owning a single property. "it's powerful to think that you can generate significant revenue without needing to actually purchase properties," he said. He says he got the sign from God to quit his day job as a pastor to sub-let other people's properties. Murphy leads a dedicated list of disciples, charging a pretty penny for lessons to follow in his footsteps.
https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/sydney-landlord-earns-…
# NSW, .In the middle of Parramatta sits a 24-storey residential tower. No one lives there
Ellie Busby The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Elegant, timeless and convenient – that was how Observatory Place, a 24-storey residential building in Parramatta featuring 173 apartments, was described by its developer. But despite construction finishing in 2022, the tower is abandoned. Identifiable by its orange cladding, passersby can’t miss the 5-7 Parkes Street building that towers over Jubilee Park, on the southern side of the railway station. They also can’t miss the fence that stretches around it, preventing anyone from entering the vacant complex that is now sporting chipped paint and graffiti on the walls.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/in-the-middle-of-parramatta-…
# Hot topic NSW, Strata.In the housing debate between NIMBYs and YIMBYs, a map of Sydney shows what's at stake
Gareth Hutchens ABC (No paywall)In the debate about Sydney's housing situation and the protection of the city's heritage buildings and suburbs, there's a map that does the rounds. It comes from a NSW Productivity Commission report (2024). It shows that roughly one-quarter of the residential-zoned land within 10 kilometres of Sydney's CBD is subject to some form of heritage protection. It's used by YIMBYs (Yes In My Backyard) to show how absurd the city's heritage movement has become.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-26/nimbys-yimbys-housing-deb…
# NSW, .