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
Renters and home buyers are seeing AI‑‘enhanced’ property photos. Now NSW is changing the rules
Paul Harrison The Conversation (No paywall)A photograph of a house is supposed to tell you what a house looks like. That sounds obvious. But increasingly, it’s becoming a question, rather than a fact. Real estate agents are using artificial intelligence (AI) to brighten rooms, add furniture, improve gardens, remove unattractive elements and, in some cases, create features that don’t even exist. The practice has even been given a new name, “housefishing”. From 2027, New South Wales will require real estate agents to disclose when images in rental advertisements have been digitally altered, or generated using AI, where they could mislead prospective tenants. Should other states follow suit?
https://theconversation.com/renters-and-home-buyers-are-seeing-a…
# NSW, .Sydney mum needs oxygen as mould crisis engulfs NSW housing home
Cydonee Mardon news.com.au (No paywall)A Sydney mother has been hospitalised twice and now requires oxygen to breathe – yet she and her young son remain in a severely mould-affected NSW public housing property with no temporary accommodation offered. Lee, a single mother whose 11-year-old son has autism and severe developmental delay and speech difficulties, claims Homes NSW has known about the mould problem for about six months. Her two daughters, aged 23 and 21, were forced to move out of the home on the weekend, feeling unsafe.
https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/sydney-mum-needs-oxygen…
# NSW, .New rental rules see quiet change for millions as landlords caught off guard
Sophie Venz Yahoo News (No paywall)State governments have been working towards better protections for the millions of renting Aussies across the country. New South Wales banned no-grounds evictions in May last year with the Victorian government following suit in November. Landlords are now required to provide lawful reasons when ending a lease, along with supporting evidence. New data released by the NSW government reveals how that change has played out.
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/new-rental-rules-see-quiet-cha…
# NSW, Starting a tenancy.‘Losing hope’: Why renting in Sydney is getting so much harder – for everyone
Robyn Willis The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)When Sole Ferreyra moved to Sydney from Melbourne recently, she thought she had a handle on the cost of renting in Sydney. After all, she had lived here before. “I knew it would be more expensive than Melbourne by 25 to 30 per cent, but I found it was about 40 per cent more expensive than Melbourne when comparing similar offerings,” she said. In the market for a one-bedroom apartment, the 43-year-old architect wanted to live in an area with a village feel that would not be too far from her office in Surry Hills. With a budget of $850 per week, she started looking at inner-ring suburbs.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/losing-hope-why-renting-in-…
# NSW, .Data Centre Overlooking Blackman Park Withdrawn after Community Pushback
Huw Bradshaw North Shore Lorikeet (No paywall)A major North Shore data centre company has canned its billion dollar Lane Cove project, less than a week after its executives copped sharp criticism for the proposal at a public hearing. What happened: In April, data centre developer Goodman Group put forward plans for its newest North Shore data centre — dubbed “Project Mars” — sitting at 12 Mars Road on the border of the Lane Cove West industrial park. The proposal received major community pushback, most recently at a federal public hearing hosted in Lane Cove, where locals claimed they had been shut out of the planning process.
https://www.northshorelorikeet.com.au/p/data-centre-overlooking-…
# NSW, .Renters Transfer $5M Through Smart Rental Bonds in One Month
Mirage News (No paywall)The Minns Labor Government has helped over 1,800 renting households save thousands of dollars when moving home with more than $5 million worth of bonds transferred through Smart Rental Bonds since its statewide launch last month. With Smart Rental Bonds available to the more than 2.3 million renters across NSW, the days of the dreaded 'double bond' are now over.
https://www.miragenews.com/renters-transfer-5m-through-smart-ren…
# NSW, Bond.An AI boom is sending San Francisco rents through the roof: ‘Nowhere left for people to go’
Robin Buller The Guardian (No paywall)To say that Maria Zamudio and her team have been busy lately would be a gross understatement. Every Monday at 9am, the phone lines at the downtown clinic of San Francisco’s Housing Rights Committee start ringing, and they keep ringing until closing at 5pm. In-person counseling appointments for renters facing eviction or landlord misconduct fill days in advance. After every weekend, the staff of seven sits in their office and sifts through more than 150 voicemails. The rental assistance hotline averages 200 calls a week.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/oct/08/s…
# International, .Cost rental & rent control: complementary policies
Alistair Sisson Substack (No paywall)A couple of months back I wrote about Vienna’s social housing system and its model of cost rents and limited profit housing. This system has rightly attracted a lot of attention in Australia, where social housing is highly residual and private rental highly insecure. A team of researchers led by Julie Lawson recently published a brilliant report on how Australia’s social and affordable housing sector could grow through a cost rent model. It’s a thorough and compelling proposal for reversing structural decline and creating a system that’s self-sustaining and even self-expanding over the long term.
https://moresocialhousing.substack.com/p/cost-rental-and-rent-co…
# International, Public and community housing.