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
The regional towns where rents have all but doubled in five years
Lucy Slade Australian Financial Review (Paywall)Northern New South Wales tenant Tanya Erezuma’s rent has risen from $480 a week six years ago to $1000 today, forcing her to get a second job stacking shelves at Woolworths on top of her full-time council role. Erezuma’s husband works part-time and her daughter works full-time but the family cannot affordably rent a home in or near Tweed Heads, a township sandwiched between the Gold Coast and Byron Bay, despite their income and an unblemished rental history.
https://www.afr.com/property/residential/the-regional-towns-wher…
# NSW, Rent.Carpark to become modern affordable housing
Coast Community News (No paywall)Three vacant lots in The Entrance used now as informal car parking are set to be transformed into a seven-storey residential tower with commercial space at street level. The 2,332sqm parcel of land is between Campbell Ave and 23-25 Ashton Ave, opposite the heritage Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church and within easy walking distance of Lakeside Shopping Centre and The Entrance Public School. For many years the site has been earmarked by Central Coast Council as a target location for affordable housing.
https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/central-coast/news/2026/07/car…
# NSW, .How the Renters’ Rights Act was won: what a decade of campaigning teaches us about winning policy change.
Alex Jones Sheila McKechnie Foundation (SMK) (No paywall)When Generation Rent first called for the abolition of Section 21 in 2014, the idea was widely dismissed. Just over a decade later, on 1 May 2026, the Renters’ Rights Act came into force, ending ‘no-fault’ evictions and strengthening rights for millions of renters. It’s the most significant reform of private renting in a generation. But how did this change actually happen? Major social change rarely happens quickly, or for one reason. It’s the result of sustained effort, multiple strategies and many actors working together over time. Yet there are few published campaign evaluations that explain how change really happens.
https://smk.org.uk/how-the-renters-rights-act-was-won-what-a-dec…
# International, .The most beautiful act of resistance I’ve seen: Madrid tenants fighting landlords with art
Leah Pattem The Guardian (No paywall)Spain’s housing crisis finally came for the tenants of Madrid’s Calle Tribulete 7 when their block was sold to an investment fund. Feeling pressured to leave by rent increases and aggressive construction works that flooded some apartments, they did everything they were supposed to do: organise meetings, contact the tenants’ union and find a lawyer. They also protested, spoke to journalists and created an Instagram account to spread the word. But they also did something I’d never seen before.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/16/madrid-lan…
# Must read International, Eviction.Rogue landlord used AI to fake smoke detector
Chris Young BBC (No paywall)A rogue landlord used AI to try to trick a council into believing he had installed a smoke detector in a house he was subletting. Mindaugas Palaima was being investigated by Bradford Council over safety issues at one of his unauthorised rental properties - but when they visited it, no smoke alarm was fitted and officers realised he had used a fake AI-generated image of one. Bradford Magistrates' Court heard he had rented two properties and converted them into House in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) without the permission of the building owners.
# International, Utilities water energy internet.Short-term rentals fuel human trafficking in Canada. One Prairie city is trying to fight back
Temur Durrani The Globe and Mail (CA) (Paywall)The teenager from rural Quebec was in her last year of high school when she went missing in 2024. Her parents reported her disappearance to police, but for weeks there was no trace of the young woman, who had just turned 18. And then, one Thursday in late March, she sent a frantic message to a friend back home. She was being held in an Airbnb in downtown Winnipeg and needed help. Court would later hear that the Grade 12 student was caught up in a human-trafficking scheme orchestrated by 24-year-old rapper Malik Regele Marc.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-short-term-rental…
# International, .Largest landlord in the US accused of civil rights violations
Tracie McMillan The Guardian (No paywall)Greystar, the largest owner and manager of apartments in the US, systematically flouts local laws designed to make housing affordable to the poor, according to civil rights complaints filed with authorities in six states and the District of Columbia. The complaints – filed this week with government agencies in California, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia and Washington DC – accuse Greystar of 114 violations of state and DC fair housing laws.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/16/greystar-landlor…
# International, .Burnham pledges to end rough sleeping in England in first speech as prime minister
Kiran Stacey The Guardian (No paywall)Andy Burnham has promised to end rough sleeping in England in his first pledge as prime minister, allocating an additional £340m over three years as he seeks to replicate the homelessness schemes he rolled out in Greater Manchester. Speaking in front of Downing Street immediately after becoming prime minister, Burnham said he would try to get people off the streets “at the earliest opportunity”.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/20/andy-burnham-ple…
# International, .