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
'Straight up demanded access': Census rule you may not be aware of
Yasmine Alwakal SBS (No paywall)As president of the Strata Community Association of Australasia, Joshua Baldwin has been informing building managers about the Census process. He said while Census data collected by the ABS provides important insights into the nation's population and housing, coordinating access to secure-building apartments can become a "logistical nightmare". Around 30,000 field staff have been hired by the ABS to ensure everyone in Australia is counted on 11 August. This involves delivering Census materials before Census night and following up with households that have not completed their Census after 11 August.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/can-census-workers-enter-you…
# Australia, Strata.Call to ban filming during ‘dystopian’ rental inspections
Alesha Capone realestate.com.au (No paywall)Victorian real estate agents have been slammed for invading tenants’ privacy during routine rental inspections by recording detailed videos. Tenant Kristie Hoskins is calling for this to be banned under the state’s Residential Tenancies Act and is especially worried about her childrens’ bedrooms and personal items being recorded. She also wants legislation to be amended so that agents would be prohibited from filming or photographing undamaged personal spaces, furniture, or living areas solely for the purpose of assessing a renter’s housekeeping or neatness.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/call-to-ban-agents-filming-du…
# Australia, Security and safety, Starting a tenancy.Homelessness could be four times higher in a decade due to impacts from climate change
University of Sydney (No paywall)A study on the future of Australia’s housing market, has revealed that even well-intended housing market interventions could significantly worsen housing affordability and homelessness in the country due to the impacts of climate change. The research, by Peyman Habibi-Moshfegh and Associate Professor Nader Naderpajouh from the University of Sydney School of Project Management predicted that homelessness could be four times higher in a decade in a climate future with high levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Home ownership affordability could be twice as expensive and rent would be less affordable, by up to 45 percent.
https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2026/05/15/homelessn…
# NSW, .Calls for 7.5pc levy on holiday rentals to fund homelessness support services
Emma Rennie ABC (No paywall)Louise Dwyer and Mike Crouch remember a time when finding a rental in the NSW Northern Rivers was easy and affordable. The couple lives in a temporary housing village in Mullumbimby established for those displaced by the 2022 floods. The pod villages will close by the end of the year, and the couple is among the village residents struggling to find secure accommodation. They have booked caravan parks and hotel rooms for the holiday period after their lease ends in December. "Prior to the floods, we had really great affordable housing … for many, many years," Ms Dwyer said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-01/calls-for-holiday-rental-…
# NSW, .NSW should compensate elderly woman whose public housing was inundated with sewage, ombudsman finds
Achol Arok The Guardian (No paywall)An elderly public housing tenant whose home was damaged by sewage overflows will be fully compensated by the New South Wales government after it disposed of her personal belongings without her consent and failed to properly support her insurance claim. The NSW Ombudsman on Friday published a summary of the report after an investigation in which it found Homes NSW acted unreasonably in how it handled the tenant’s contaminated belongings and “failed to provide full and accurate information to the insurer”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/aug/01/nsw-shoul…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Repairs.Fines, indefinite motel stays and uncertainty: how a homeless camp exposed regional Australia’s housing crisis
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)Leigh Swansborough has just pulled into Wilks Park, one of the biggest homeless encampments in regional New South Wales. “You would think that people would be here today,” says Swansborough, an advocate for the people at Wilks Park. “But no one has shown up.” Tuesday was meant to be D-day for residents at the camp in Wagga Wagga. Compliance action requests – eviction notices by another name – had been given out by the council, asking those living there to move by 28 July or face a $1,100 fine.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2026/a…
# NSW, Eviction.I live in a 16-person share house. This is what might surprise you
Alexa SBS (No paywall)I usually have to do a mental headcount when people ask how many housemates I have. "Fifteen or 16, depending on the day" is my typical answer. Often what follows is a look of disbelief and shocked statements like "I could never do that!" It's also often followed by questions such as: "Isn't there so much conflict?" or "How does that even work?" or "Do you get any privacy?" About three years ago now, when I was 19, I moved into the 16-person share house in Newcastle, about two hours north of Sydney. I was living at home in a good location, and I got on well with my family; there was no reason I needed to move out.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/insight/article/i-live-with-15-other…
# NSW, Rent, Share houses.Their Byron neighbours live in $2m homes. These villagers are being evicted
Amber Schultz The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The anxiety is palpable at the Northern Rivers temporary pod villages as eviction day looms. The villages consist of dozens of demountables set up on council land, including a village on Tweed Street in Brunswick Heads, following the devastating 2022 floods. They sit alongside a booming real estate market where three-bedroom homes sell for more than $2 million. Only six temporary pod villages remain, following the decommissioning of five others last year. Residents not on a social housing waitlist were told to vacate last week, while the remaining 167 households have until September, ahead of full decommissioning in December. But in a region with rental vacancies of 0.5 per cent, locals say there’s nowhere to go.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/their-byron-neighbours-live-…
# Hot topic NSW, Eviction, Rent.