Housing News Digest
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
Australia’s rental crisis at home also cost its reputation abroad
Sohail Akhtar Lowy Institute (No paywall)Enthusiastic, full of hope, with postgraduate degrees, international work experience, and legal working rights, I arrived in Melbourne about six months ago. But when it came to renting a home, a very basic amenity, none of that mattered. Landlords didn’t care for my qualifications or potential. They wanted an Australian credit history, a stable job and sometimes even months of rent in advance. Without these, I was a risk, not a tenant. Australia rightly promotes itself globally as one of the world’s most beautiful and liveable countries, attracting thousands of students, workers, and skilled migrants every year.
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/australia-s-rental…
# Australia, Discrimination, Rent, Starting a tenancy.Queensland Government urged to fix housing policy that threatens safety of at-risk women
Tabitha Lean, Debbie Kilroy and Brig H Croakey Media (No paywall)Women who are experiencing extreme disadvantage, including violence, poverty and housing insecurity, are at unfair risk from a new Queensland Government housing policy, according to the authors below. Tabitha Lean and Debbie Kilroy OAM, from the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, and Brig H, who wishes to remain anonymous, call for the removal of punitive elements of the Government’s Immediate Housing Response (IHR). The IHR provides short-term and temporary refuge accommodation assistance to people experiencing, or at imminent risk of homelessness, and is delivered by government funded Specialist Homelessness Services. This is the first in a two-part series on Queensland Government housing policies.
https://www.croakey.org/queensland-government-urged-to-fix-housi…
# Australia, Rent.Is regulation really to blame for the housing affordability crisis?
Nicole Gurran and Peter Phibbs The Conversation (No paywall)The Albanese government has a new mantra to describe the housing crisis, which is showing no signs of abating: homes have simply become “too hard to build” in Australia. The prime minister and senior ministers are taking aim at what they are calling a “thicket” of red tape and regulation, which is making it “uneconomic” to build affordable housing. Undoubtedly, the great Australian dream is further out of reach, with average house prices now above A$1 million for the first time. But will a war on excessive regulation be enough to address the affordability barriers keeping many people out of the market? Or does the answer lie in systemic change, including tax reform?
https://theconversation.com/is-regulation-really-to-blame-for-th…
# Hot topic Australia, .Queensland public housing tenants to be evicted after three warnings for serious behaviour in a year
Claudia Williams ABC (No paywall)Public housing tenants in Queensland who are issued three warnings for serious behaviour in a year could be evicted under a new government policy. The new policy, which will come into effect in July, will also see tenants who are evicted for committing illegal offences banned from reapplying for two years. Housing advocates have expressed disappointment that they were not consulted by the government, and hold concerns it could lead to the most vulnerable in the community becoming homeless.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-14/queensland-public-housing…
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Public and community housing.Why Australian homes are so cold — and what you can do about it
Jessica Bahr SBS (No paywall)Winter has arrived in Australia, and you may have noticed it feels just as cold — or even colder —inside your home compared with outside. Australia is typically considered a warm country, and winter temperatures do not reach the lows recorded in many other parts of the world. But inside many homes, it's a different story. If you live in Australia and you're feeling the cold, you're not alone. Content creators from colder places, such as Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, have taken to social media to question why Australian houses are so cold compared to those overseas.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/why-australian-homes-are-so-…
# Australia, .Victoria to ban rent bidding outlawed in major crackdown on price hikes
Brendan Kearns, Bridget Clarke and David Bonaddio Herald Sun (No paywall)Victoria’s rental market has become a pressure cooker, and desperate tenants are offering hundreds above asking price just to secure a roof over their heads. Would-be renters are forking out far more than advertised prices and offering months of rent in advance in a bid to beat fierce competition across Melbourne, with inspections drawing dozens of applicants and many being repeatedly knocked back. One man, attending his sixteenth inspection in two weeks, told the Herald Sun rent bidding — where tenants offer more than the listed rent — was “the easiest way” to lock in a lease, especially in the inner suburbs. “It’s been really hard,” he said. “It’s really competitive, especially in these suburbs where people really want flats.”
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/property/victoria-to-ban-rent-biddi…
# Hot topic Australia, .‘There’s faeces everywhere’: Carol’s home regularly floods with sewage. It’s a sign of a ‘neglected’ public housing system
Kate Lyons The Guardian (No paywall)Earlier this month, Carol Edwards woke to find the entire downstairs floor of her inner-Sydney terrace house covered in human excrement. Faeces, urine, and balls of toilet paper from her neighbours’ homes had bubbled up from a drain in her laundry cupboard and spilled across the floor of her kitchen, past her dining table, through to the lounge – almost to the front door of her Alexandria home. That 6 June morning wasn’t the first time sewage has flooded her home. In fact, she says it has happened more times than she can count in the 30 years she has lived in the housing commission property.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jun/13/theres-fa…
# NSW, Public and community housing, Rent.‘We’ve been left in this mess’: residents of condemned Merseyside blocks face eviction
Raphael Boyd The Guardian (No paywall)Residents of two Merseyside tower blocks who have been ordered to leave after the buildings were deemed unsafe say they feel “stuck” and “left behind”. Hundreds of people living in Beech Rise and Willow Rise, which stand beside each other in Kirkby, received a letter from the council informing them the building was unsafe and a prohibition notice would be served after an inspection by Merseyside fire and rescue service. It is the latest revelation of the poor conditions of many privately rented dwellings and tenants’ apparent lack of rights.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jun/12/residents-of-con…
# Hot topic International, Disasters, Eviction.