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
Housing in Tassie, a right or a privilege?
Airlie Ward ABC (No paywall)Adequate housing is supposed to be a basic human right - but around 18,000 Tasmanians don't have a secure home. A bit over half a million people call Tassie home, around a quarter of us rent that home. Despite government promises to boost affordable housing options and incentives to help buy, experts fear home ownership is now nothing more than a dream for many as house prices continue to rise. That's putting downward pressure on an already tight rental market and growing public housing wait list. So what can be done?
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/abc-tassiecast/abc-tassie…
# Hot topic, Audio Australia, .Fixing housing’s a vote winner. But which fix and which voter?
Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)We hear a lot about Australia’s housing problems from politicians, developers, economists, NIMBYS and YIMBYS. But what about voters? What do they make of our housing affordability challenges? And which policies to fix the problem have popular support? A new deep-dive into what Australians think about housing has helped answer those questions. The study by Macquarie University’s Housing and Urban Research Centre draws on the 2025 Australian Cooperative Election Survey which interviewed about 4000 voters on a range of issues during this year’s federal election campaign.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/there-s-a-lot-of-tal…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Auditor to probe social housing fund's value for money
Zac de Silva AAP (No paywall)One of the federal government's signature housing policies is being audited amid concerns the $10 billion scheme may not be producing value for money. The Housing Australia Future Fund was set up in 2023 to help tackle a national shortage of dwellings, and aimed to build 40,000 social and affordable homes by 2028. But slow progress on the construction of new properties, along with reports that the average cost of a home under the scheme was more than $750,000, prompted the Opposition's housing spokesman Andrew Bragg to request an investigation from the Australian National Audit Office.
https://aapnews.aap.com.au/news/auditor-to-probe-social-housing-…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing.With Rental Registries, Cities Seek to Close Data Gap With Landlords
Patrick Sisson Bloomberg (No paywall)For 17 years, a back-and-forth battle has rippled through Pittsburgh City Hall, marked by accusations of constitutional overreach, threats to public health, and a parade of legal actions that have gone all the way to the state supreme court. The issue at hand is no hot-button culture war concern like abortion rights or gun control: It’s a rental registry, which would allow the city to keep tabs on who owns rental properties and enact regular inspections of the city’s housing stock in a bid to improve apartment quality and protect tenants.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-02/for-cities-re…
# International, .Raytown apartment complex launches rent strike, demands better living conditions
Isabella Ledonne Kansas City (No paywall)The union tenants at Bowen Tower apartment in Raytown, Missouri, have officially gone on a rent strike, withholding their payments until further notice. "Not one cent for the slumlords!" tenants chanted on Wednesday afternoon. This is the third rent strike that has happened in the Kansas City metro, demanding better living conditions and formal meetings with landlords. Elijah Brink has dealt with issues for months. Brink says he has reported consistent problems with plumbing, air conditioning and bed bugs to management, but there has been no resolution.
https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/raytown-apartment-complex-l…
# International, .EU to propose short-term rental rules to tackle ‘social crisis’ in housing
Jennifer Rankin The Guardian (No paywall)The EU executive will propose rules to tackle the “huge problem” of short-term rentals via platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com, as it seeks to confront the “social crisis” of people struggling to afford a home, its first-ever housing commissioner has said. In an interview with the Guardian and other European newspapers, Dan Jørgensen said it was time for Brussels policymakers to take housing seriously or cede ground to anti-EU populists, who, he said, did not have the answers to the shortage of affordable homes.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/15/eu-executive-short…
# International, .Here’s All the Government Handouts Landlords Get
Rivkah Brown Novara Media (No paywall)Landlords – they really get a raw deal, don’t they? That’s certainly what the landlord lobby would have you think. From being forced “to house millions more pets” to not being allowed to simply text tenants to inform them that their rent is going up, there are few people as mugged off as the humble private “housing provider”. Adding insult to injury, two weeks ago, a leak from the Treasury suggested that chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering forcing landlords to pay national insurance on their rental income in the autumn budget, bringing them unjustly in line with the rest of the population that actually works for a living.
https://novaramedia.com/2025/09/10/heres-all-the-government-hand…
# International, .Renters face new limits on houseplants amid growing disputes
Gian T Seniors Discount Club (No paywall)Many Australian seniors know the joy of nurturing a garden, but what happens when life circumstances move you into a rental property? For one British tenant named Miguel, his love of indoor greenery sparked an extraordinary battle with his landlord that's got the internet both laughing and taking sides. The exchange reads like a masterclass in tenant defiance, but it also raises serious questions about what rights renters have when it comes to making their house feel like home. The drama began when property owner Janet sent Miguel an email expressing 'serious concern' about his houseplant collection.
https://seniorsdiscountclub.com.au/threads/renters-face-new-limi…
# International, .