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
Standard rental application to protect privacy, says NSW Government
Karl Hoerr Law Society Journal (No paywall)The Residential Tenancies (Protection of Personal Information) Amendment Bill 2025 requires a standardised rental application form, detailing what information is necessary for the application. The government says this means requests such as personal photos, social media accounts, and details about children, will be off limits. The laws also cover the storage and destruction of personal data. Identity documents such as driver licences and passports will only be required before signing a lease. The government estimates 187,000 pieces of ID are currently collected from rental applicants every year, and the measure will significantly reduce this figure.
https://lsj.com.au/articles/standard-rental-application-to-prote…
# NSW, Privacy and access, Starting a tenancy.Social housing tenants to get coordinated rooftop PV and home batteries in first urban renewable zone
Peter Hannam Renew Economy (No paywall)The Illawarra, site of Australia’s first urban renewable energy zone, will play host to an $11 million pilot program to demonstrate how social housing tenants can secure “immediate cost-of-living benefits” through the coordination of rooftop solar, home batteries and virtual power plant (VPP) technology. The project, located around Wollongong to Sydney’s south, will install rooftop photovoltaics and batteries on selected social housing properties.
# NSW, Utilities water energy internet.Minns Labor Government delivers NSW renters landmark protections against privacy breaches and misleading rental ads
NSW Government (No paywall)The Minns Labor Government is strengthening protections for more than 2.3 million renters across NSW, with tough new laws to protect their personal information and stop misleading rental ads created using AI. The reforms in the Residential Tenancies (Protection of Personal Information) Amendment Bill 2025, passed by the NSW Parliament last night, will stop the unnecessary collection of personal information by landlords and agents to reduce the risk of identity theft and data breaches and create a fairer, more consistent application process for renters.
https://www.nsw.gov.au/ministerial-releases/renters-get-landmark…
# Hot topic, Legal significance NSW, Starting a tenancy.Domestic violence and renting
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Everyone deserves a safe home. Tenancy law can help victim-survivors of domestic abuse in a number of ways. This factsheet summarises the options for tenants who are victim-survivors of domestic abuse, including ending your tenancy using a Domestic Violence Termination Notice. (Factsheet updated September 2026)
# NSW, Domestic violence.445 new student beds to ease Newcastle housing shortage
Olivia Arigho Newcastle Weekly (Paywall)Hundreds of new student beds are set to be added to Newcastle’s CBD as the University of Newcastle (UoN) works to address affordable accommodation. The university has named its new nine-storey student accommodation Muloobinba House, the building reaching its highest point at a topping-out ceremony on Tuesday, 22 September. The name Muloobinba comes from the Awabakal language and refers to the Newcastle area, meaning “place of sea ferns”.
https://newcastleweekly.com.au/445-new-student-beds-to-ease-newc…
# NSW, .Housing hindered by lack of tradies
Coast Community News (No paywall)The ability for regional NSW to build more homes will increasingly depend on winning the battle for skilled tradies, with housing competing against infrastructure, energy and emerging industries for an already stretched workforce, according to a new report from the Housing Industry Association (HIA). The report, Australia’s Future is Built by Tradies, warns that Australia’s residential building industry is already about 83,000 skilled workers short.
https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/central-coast/news/2026/09/hou…
# NSW, .Dramatic eviction spotlights Spain's housing crisis
Reuters (No paywall)Police evicted an 87-year-old woman from her Madrid home of more than seven decades despite hundreds of people protesting outside and the government criticizing the eviction order, in a dramatic new flashpoint of Spain's housing crisis.
https://www.reuters.com/pictures/dramatic-eviction-spotlights-sp…
# Must read International, Eviction.Generation rent growing old: ‘This is a window into the future for enormous numbers of people’
Peter Apps Substack (No paywall)I believe this is a seriously under-discussed issue in the current landscape of Britain’s housing debate. How are pensioners supposed to cope with large rental payments? We really do not have an answer. But this is an issue which is here, and will grow sharply in the coming decades as further cohorts of renters retire while still needing to pay full market housing costs. Could we look at targetted pension support - perhaps funded by breaking the triple lock? Or do we need to focus more social housing towards pensioners and older people? Both suggestions have their downsides, but so does the status quo (a small note - the below passage was written before the Renters Right Act passed - the renters have more security against eviction now, but very little against rent rises).
https://peteapps.substack.com/p/generation-rent-growing-old-this…
# Must read International, Rent.