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
VIDEO: Sections of Parramatta Road to get rezoned for housing
ABC (No paywall)The NSW government will rezone parts of Sydney’s busy Parramatta Road for housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-13/sections-of-parramatta-ro…
# Video NSW, .Director fined $54k over illegal boarding house for migrant workers
Jack Horsnell 1 News (No paywall)An Auckland property director, who ran an illegal boarding house for migrant workers, has been fined $54,000. Paul Knights, who was acting as director of 4 Corners Investment Ltd, had earlier pleaded guilty to the offending. The court said he "knowingly flouted requirements for financial gain". The fine was part of a wider prosecution over the converted warehouse – owned by Knights – on Maich Road in Manurewa, which predominantly housed workers from the Philippines.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/09/04/director-fined-54k-over-illeg…
# International, .Egypt scraps decades-old rent caps, fuelling eviction fears
Mariam Rizk and Mohamed Ezz Reuters (No paywall)CAIRO, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The rent on Khaddara Ibrahim Ali's cramped apartment in downtown Cairo was just about the only expense she could count on staying stable as waves of soaring inflation and subsidy cuts ate away at her modest income. Thanks to a decades-old rent cap, Ali, 84, pays just under 11 Egyptian pounds ($0.23) per month for the eighth-story home where she has lived for half a century, overlooking a patchwork of ageing buildings and narrow streets in the Azbakeya district.
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/egypt-scraps-decades-old-re…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent.Egypt scraps decades-old rent caps, fuelling eviction fears
Reuters (No paywall)After Egypt approved the biggest rent overhaul in decades, affecting millions of households, some tenants fear eviction in the face of new prices.
# Video International, Eviction.‘No pets, no guests, no music’ – and now ‘no WFH’: why house-share ads are getting ever stricter
Kimi Chaddah The Guardian (No paywall)Last week, I came across a flurry of ads on the house-share site SpareRoom sounding less like they were for cosy, inviting living arrangements than for boarding schools. “Please note – no surprise guests, no music and no use of the living room because it doubles as a bedroom,” wrote one “current flatmate”. Reading it, I wondered if there would be a curfew too.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/06/house-shar…
# Hot topic International, Rent.What happened to Ireland’s plan to make sure renters’ deposits were protected?
The Journal (No paywall)BACK IN 2015, the then-government introduced a law requiring landlords to store deposits with the Residential Tenancies Board – but the measure was never implemented. As part of the 2015 Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act, the scheme aimed to safeguard renters’ deposits and resolve disputes. Similar schemes have worked successfully in other countries, and the Irish law looked set to follow suit. Since then, however, disputes over deposits have become more common, not less. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) logged over 1,800 deposit-related requests in 2024 — a 65% increase on the 2021 figure.
https://www.thejournal.ie/renter-deposit-scheme-where-is-it-6808…
# International, Rent.‘No more empty homes while people are homeless’: the squatters being evicted from the northern rivers’ ‘buyback’ homes
Penry Buckley The Guardian (No paywall)One August morning, Chels Hood Withey woke to sheriffs banging on the door. The housing advocate had been squatting in an empty house in Mullumbimby, in Byron shire, after they became homeless in January. But the house was a “buyback”, one of hundreds purchased from their owners by the New South Wales government’s Reconstruction Authority (RA) as part of a scheme to improve the flood resilience of areas following the state’s devastating floods in 2022. Many people have moved into the homes, which are due for demolition, relocation or recycling, because of what they say is a lack of affordable housing in the region.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/06/northen-rive…
# Must read NSW, Disasters.Domestic violence victim-survivors to get stronger rental protections
NSW Government (No paywall)Victim-survivors of domestic violence will soon have greater power to leave unsafe homes and protect their privacy under new rental reforms introduced by the Minns Labor Government in NSW Parliament today. The Residential Tenancies Amendment (Domestic Violence Reform) Bill 2025 introduces changes to the process for leaving a tenancy due to domestic violence to better support victim-survivors. The reforms will: Make it easier for victim-survivors to leave a tenancy; Strengthen privacy and security protections; Improve a ban on listing victims on residential tenancy databases; Make it clear victim-survivors are not liable for property damage caused by a perpetrator; Support victim-survivors to recover their share of the rental bond.
https://dcj.nsw.gov.au/news-and-media/media-releases/2025/domest…
# Must read NSW, Domestic violence.