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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Unrecognisable 1980s Australian film icon Yahoo Serious spotted after accusations he was ‘squatting’ in Palm Beach, New South Wales home
Chloe Walker Sky News (No paywall)Eighties Australian movie star Yahoo Serious has been spotted after claims he's refusing to vacate a Palm Beach home belonging to an elderly man now in full-time care. Serious, 71, was seen Tuesday grabbing a copy of The Daily Telegraph, hours after the paper reported on accusations that he has refused to leave a seriously ill man's Northern Beaches home. The once-celebrated comic actor was unrecognisable in shorts, T-shirt, cap and glasses as he took his Jack Russell terrier out for a walk while running errands around Avalon Beach.
https://www.skynews.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity-life/unrecognisab…
# Hot topic NSW, .‘Stripped to our bare bones’: three years on from the floods, Lismore’s housing crisis is worse than ever
Jordyn Beazley The Guardian (No paywall)On the edge of Lismore is the home of Chris Gurr and his son, nestled among a forest of fruit and nut trees. The flecked paint on the house, which is more than 100 years old, is one of the few reminders of the flood waters that three years ago had lapped just centimetres from the loft. They don’t own the home, a friend does. Eighteen months ago the friend said Gurr and his 11-year-old son could live there after they lost everything they owned when their rental was hit by the worst flood in Australia’s modern history. This new home is nothing fancy, Gurr says, but it has character and is peaceful. “This house is me,” Gurr, a poet and artist, says when asked to describe it.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/mar/03/lismore-f…
# Must read NSW, Disasters.Architects concerned about new housing designs for NSW pattern book
Isabella Ross ABC (No paywall)Thirteen new designs have been commissioned for the New South Wales Housing Pattern Book, though some architects believe the "cookie cutter approach" won't address the current housing crisis. It is the second tranche of designs to be added to the standardised list, with 18 in total since November last year. The state government's pattern book aims to make the delivery of homes in NSW faster, as anyone who uses the pre-approved designs would be given an accelerated approval pathway. The designs are for terraces, semi-detached dual occupancy and manor houses, low-rise apartment buildings, mid-rise residential flat buildings, and more.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-03/pattern-books-housing-nsw…
# Hot topic NSW, Public and community housing, Rent.A billion-dollar dirty secret: Homes hide ‘worst conditions you can imagine’
Carrie Fellner The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)For young Australians in the prime of their lives, it’s a cherished rite of passage delivering them their first taste of freedom and independence. But when Sydneysider Ella* moved into shared accommodation in 2023, she was catapulted into a powderkeg from which there is no escape. Superficially, her home – in one of the legions of new builds that have sprung up across western Sydney – appears pristine. But behind closed doors, there are the nauseating smells; shrieks and screams; smashed walls and, sometimes, extreme violence, which have become Ella’s harsh new reality.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/a-billion-dollar-dirty-secre…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.Norrie wanted this unit to be her ‘forever home’. Now, she has to move
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)More than 100 tenants have been handed eviction notices warning they must move within months to make way for the first stage of the $4 billion overhaul of the Waterloo public housing estate. Vulnerable residents have since 2015 battled the state government’s plans to tear down about 750 public housing properties on the sprawling estate in Sydney’s inner south, and replace them with 3000 new homes, about half of which will be private apartments, near the new metro rail station.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/norrie-wanted-this-unit-to-b…
# Must read NSW, Eviction, Public and community housing, Rent.Sydney renters at risk of eviction
7 News (No paywall)Sorely needed rental reforms giving tenants stronger protections are now just weeks away. But for some, it's too little, too late. 7NEWS has obtained troubling new data, revealing just how much tenants are being exploited by dodgy behaviour.
# TUNSW in the media, Video NSW, Eviction, Rent.My ex-landlord was dodgy, so I went the extra yard to warn the next tenant
Belinda Lopez The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A few weeks after I vacated my mouldy, poorly constructed, roach-infested rental in Sydney’s inner west, I drove back to the house with a letter addressed to the new tenant. I’d been keeping an eye on a real estate website to see when it was rented again (and enjoyed gleeful schadenfreude when the house took a number of weeks to lease after the landlord tried to hike up the rent). “Dear new tenant,” I wrote. “As a former tenant at this address, I wanted you to be aware of the building’s history to help you better advocate for yourself. I’ll list these briefly in bullet points. Quotes in italics were sent to us by the landlord’s real estate representative”.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/my-ex-landlord-was-dodgy-so-…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent.Cost of living and housing: key voting issues for NSW in upcoming election
Fiona Willan, Ruby Ritchie, Charles Rushforth, Eddie Williams, Adriane Reardon, Madeline Lewis & Andrew Mangelsdorf ABC (No paywall)As a parent watching his adult children struggle to enter the property market — Sydneysider Eric Betts hopes whichever party wins the upcoming federal election will focus on fixing the problem. "A key issue is housing prices and housing affordability … it's tough. Even to rent, it's hard." Mr Betts is a home owner but feels concerned for younger generations. "It doesn't bring me any joy … my kids and my friends' kids are having trouble finding housing in Sydney where they want to live." Voters from across New South Wales are being encouraged to voice their concerns leading up to the latest federal election in the ABC's Your Say campaign.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-28/abc-your-say-campaign-fed…
# Hot topic NSW, .