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
Quick fixes and long-term solutions to Australia's sky-rocketing rental prices
Hannah Murphy ABC (No paywall)Some of Australia’s leading minds on housing affordability say there are practical solutions within reach to rein in sky-rocketing rent prices and record-low vacancy rates. The 10th annual SGS Economics Rental Affordability Index found last year tenants in Sydney and Perth were paying more than one-third of their income towards their rent, and affordability had continued to deteriorate in other parts of the country. Housing affordability is also shaping up as a key issue in the upcoming federal election, with each major party offering their policies in recent weeks.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-24/solutions-to-rental-affor…
# Hot topic Australia, .Aussies delivered brutal reality check as RBA drops interest rate for first time in four years: 'New norm'
Tom Flanagan and Belinda Grant-Geary Yahoo News (No paywall)Yahoo Finance's live coverage on a day Michele Bullock delivered her first ever rate cut as RBA governor has concluded. Australians have finally been dealt relief as the RBA dropped the interest rate to 4.1 per cent. The rate had been at 4.35 per cent for over a year. But Bullock has delivered a brutal reality check to homeowners hoping for further rate cuts – although not everyone believes she means what she says. Economists believe a mortgage war between the banks will now reignite. Westpac was swift off the mark to be the first bank to confirm it will pass on the cut, with ANZ, NAB and Commonwealth following suit.
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/live-rba-interest-rate-decisio…
# Hot topic Australia, .Housing crisis top of mind for regional voters ahead of WA election
Bridget McArthur, Rosanne Maloney and Anthony Pancia ABC (No paywall)From the top to the bottom of Western Australia, housing shortages are hurting individuals and communities. Many people are saying they feel uninspired about state election promises that do nothing to change things. In the tourist town of Margaret River, 270 kilometres south of Perth, Serena Leotta cleans empty holiday homes while she struggles to find a house for her own family. "Cottages are empty for 10 days and I sit there and I think, 'Oh my god, I would love it if I could just stay here for 10 days,'" she said. The mother-of-two has been applying for rentals non-stop since her last lease was put up for sale, about 18 months ago.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-16/housing-crisis-weighs-hea…
# Hot topic Australia, .City of Moreton Bay changes definition of homelessness in local law
Kenji Sato ABC (No paywall)Maree Baumann spends her nights huddling in the back of her car with her tiny dog, but according to the City of Moreton Bay she is not a homeless camper. The Queensland council has changed its local law definitions meaning people experiencing homelessness sleeping in vans or with pets are no longer "persons experiencing homelessness camping". The council has vowed to end its "lenient" approach to homelessness and has spent the past few months evicting campers and threatening up to $8,000 in fines. However, the council insists that these are technically not evictions, they are technically not council fines and many of these people are technically not homeless campers.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-21/moreton-bay-council-chang…
# Hot topic Australia, .Australian rental crisis: Agent asks renters for ‘virtual tour’ of current home
Sarah Petty Herald Sun (No paywall)A Melbourne real estate agency has been slammed for asking tenants to provide “virtual tours” of their current homes when applying for new properties, which experts say could be viewed as a potential violation of privacy. Melbourne real estate agency DK Property Partners has asked a prospective tenant to provide a video walk-through of their current home as part of their tenancy application for a West Footscray rental. Rental advocate and Victorian Socialists’ senate candidate Jordan van den Lamb, known as Purple Pingers on social media, has slammed the agency for the surprising request.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/australian-rental-cri…
# Hot topic Australia, .Geraldton caravan park residents evicted amid housing crisis
Piper Duffy and Chris Lewis ABC (No paywall)A caravan park closure in regional Western Australia is forcing elderly people out of their homes as the housing crisis tightens its grip on families across the country. Frank Cooper and his wife Daphne have been long-term residents of Drummond Cove Holiday Park near Geraldton, 433 kilometres north of Perth, for 20 years. "It's nice and quiet, not too far from the shops, servo, it's just so peaceful," Mr Cooper said. But a letter delivered to their front door outlining a six-month eviction notice sent their plans of living in the park "forever" crumbling down.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-25/geraldton-caravan-park-re…
# Must read Australia, Eviction, Land lease communities.Barcelona counters the effects of over-tourism – Municipality buys apartment block to prevent eviction of tenants
Proto Thema (No paywall)The municipality of Barcelona will buy an apartment building known as “Casa Orsola” to prevent the eviction of many tenants living in it, including a teacher whose threatened eviction has become a symbol of Spain’s housing crisis and months of movements against hypertourism. Josep Torrent, 49, who has lived in the same apartment in this condo for more than 20 years, was among the tenants who were told their contracts would not be renewed after the investment firm Lioness Investments bought the Art Nouveau Casa Orsola building in 2020. The company planned to start letting the apartments filding in 2020. The company planned to start letting the apartments for short-term rentals to tourists, offered on platforms such as Airbnb.
https://en.protothema.gr/2025/02/07/barcelona-counters-the-effec…
# Hot topic International, Eviction.Rents in UK are rising at highest rate in decades. Will they keep going up?
Liam Geraghty The Big Issue (UK) (No paywall)Rents in the UK are now at the highest point on record, surging beyond wider inflation and leaving renters on low incomes struggling to keep up or find an affordable place to live. Average private rents in the UK increased by 8.7% in the 12 months up to January 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). That is slightly down on the 9% recorded up to December 2024. But, with UK inflation currently at 3% and wage growth at 5.9%, rents are outstripping both with renters feeling the pain of rising energy bills too. Analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), found rent inflation has been above 8% for the last 18 months.
https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/rents-in-the-uk-are-rising…
# Hot topic International, Rent.