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
‘This is not a World Cup for the people’: residents in host cities sound alarm over housing affordability
Iris Kim The Guardian (No paywall)More than 10 million people are expected to visit the US for the World Cup this summer. However, where and how to accommodate these visitors has been a concern among residents and affordable housing advocates in host cities from Seattle to Atlanta. Hotels remain under-booked in America’s 11 host cities, while short-term rental listings in some cities have increased by as much as 30% in recent weeks. To incentivize homeowners and landlords to become hosts during the World Cup, platforms such as Airbnb are offering a $750 sign-up bonus, with some rental listings already reaching $6,000 a night. Advocates worry that an increase in short-term listings will lead to a tighter rental market and higher rents for residents in host cities.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/13/fifa-world-cup-c…
# Hot topic International, .Admin of ‘Bad Tenants’ Facebook group hit with legal bill for ignoring privacy request
Stuff (No paywall)A former tenant who feared he had been blacklisted by landlords was blocked from a Facebook group and ignored for years after asking to see the personal information held about him. The Human Rights Review Tribunal has now ordered Wayne Wilson, the administrator of the “Bad Tenants, New Zealand (Landlords Only)” group, to pay $7500 in damages for a “total failure” to respond to the privacy request. Adam Sheehan made the request in January 2021 after reading a news article about social media groups where landlords published lists of “undesirable” tenants. Although he was no longer a tenant, Sheehan was concerned that past rental difficulties and periods of homelessness might have been caused by his personal details being shared online.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360965207/admin-bad-tenants-face…
# International, .House prices up while rents rise 45% in five years
BBC (No paywall)Average house prices and rental costs have both risen over the past year, the latest figures show. According to its Residential Property Prices Bulletin, the States of Guernsey said the average property sale price in January, February and March was £604,094, up by 4.1% compared to the same months in 2025 (£580,412). The government said the figure, which relates to 163 property sales, was also 1.4% higher than in the last quarter of 2025 (£595,820). Meanwhile, the average rental price was £2,170 a month, which represented a rise of 45% in the five years since quarter one of 2021 (£1,498).
# International, .Raising a child now costs over $300,000 in the U.S., study finds. See how your state compares.
Mary Cunningham CBS News (No paywall)Raising a child comes with a long list of expenses, from child care to additional groceries. But how much does that add up to over 18 years? A new estimate from LendingTree puts the price tag at $303,418 for 2026, or an average of $16,857 per year. It's the first time the figure has topped $300,000 since LendingTree began the analysis in 2023 and is up about 2% from a year earlier. The calculation is based on the typical expenses for a couple earning the U.S. median family income, about $100,000, while accounting for offsets from tax incentives. Because the analysis ends when a child turns 18, it does not include the cost of college, another major expense for parents. With the average cost of a U.S. college education at about $38,000 a year, that could add another $152,000 to the total.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cost-to-raise-a-child-300000-us-sta…
# International, .Landmark privacy determination puts rent tech platforms on notice. But renters remain vulnerable
Lina Przhedetsky The Conversation (No paywall)One of Australia’s most-used tenancy application platforms has breached privacy laws, Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind has ruled. 2Apply, owned by InspectRealEstate, is a third-party platform that has processed more than 8.5 million tenancy applications. The commissioner launched an investigation into 2Apply in March last year. In a landmark determination published this week, she found that over a five-year period, 2Apply had interfered with consumers’ privacy by collecting unnecessary personal information via unfair means. The landmark determination puts the booming rent tech industry on notice, and will help protect renters’ rights. But it must be complemented by further legislative reform.
https://theconversation.com/landmark-privacy-determination-puts-…
# Australia, Starting a tenancy.Rent tech platforms on notice for collecting too much personal information
ABC (No paywall)Australia's Privacy Commissioner has put the rent tech sector on notice, ruling that a platform had been unfairly collecting excessive amounts of personal information from prospective tenants. The decision noted a "significant power imbalance" in the rental property market that had made consumers particularly vulnerable to unfair practices. It's been hailed as a win for renters, and it could lead major changes across the sector. So where is the line between what's reasonable information for landlords and real estate agents to ask for, and a tenant's right to privacy?
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/lifematters/rent-tech-pla…
# Audio Australia, Rent, Starting a tenancy.Landlord inaction on energy upgrades stops renters saving $20bn on power bills in a decade
Petra Stock The Guardian (No paywall)Renters make up nearly a third of Australian households yet many are missing out on energy upgrades – such as insulation, appliances and rooftop solar – that could slash their power bills and improve home comfort. The problem, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), is landlords’ lack of motivation. “The responsibility to do a lot of these household energy upgrades – to install insulation, to change out appliances like heaters and hot water systems – rests with the landlord,” energy finance analyst Jay Gordon said. “But because they don’t get the energy bill savings, there’s essentially no financial motivation for them to do it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/27/australia-ho…
# Australia, Rent, Utilities water energy internet.Evacuees from flooded remote Indigenous areas in NT housed in compound likened to ‘a prison camp’
(A)manda Parkinson The Guardian (No paywall)Hundreds of evacuees from remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory have been housed behind temporary fences and denied visitors after being forced to evacuate their homes in the most vicious wet season on record. In March, the Daly River in the NT reached a record peak of 23.93 metres, forcing families from Palumpa and Nauiyu to flee for the second time in four weeks. As the scale of the damage became clear, the NT government moved families from an evacuation shelter in Darwin to student accommodation and temporary dongas at the Batchelor Institute, about 100km south. But many evacuees say it has felt like detention.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/apr/29/evacuees-…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Disasters.