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
How Ruth, her mum and her friends joined up to beat the housing crisis
Sue Williams The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)When her ageing mother said she’d like to move interstate to be closer to her grandchildren, Ruth Giles had a dilemma. With no room in their townhouse and no space for a granny flat, she could try to find her mum an apartment somewhere close, but there wasn’t anything suitable around. Then she had a brilliant idea: what about getting together with a bunch of like-minded people, pooling their finances to buy land and then building a block of units that would suit them all?
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/how-ruth-her-mum-and-her-fr…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Landlords warned against big rent rises despite low vacancy rates
Anthony Keane The Australian (Paywall)Rental vacancy rates have been tightening across Australia, putting the nation’s 2.3 million property investors in a stronger position to lift rents, but real estate specialists suggest many landlords should take a different view. Despite investor frustrations following Reserve Bank interest rate cuts stalling after just 0.75 percentage points of cuts since February (having surged 4.25 percentage points in 2022 and 2023), the benefit of a good tenant usually outweighs any short-term cash boost. Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show average rents rose 23 per cent between September 2020 and September 2025, after increasing just 1.1 per cent in the previous five-year period.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/wealth/property-investing/landl…
# Hot topic Australia, .Unaffordable rents no longer just a city problem as crisis engulfs regions
Cameron Micallef news.com.au (No paywall)Australia’s brutal rental crisis is spreading with unaffordable areas moving from the cities to regional parts of the country. Perth and regional Australia’s affordability have plummeted in the past 12 months, fresh figures from National Shelter, SGS Economics and Planning, and Housing All Australia show. SGS Economics Planning principal Ellen Witte told NewsWire that rental affordability was no longer an issue for traditional inner city suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne. “Over the years rental affordability was just in the cities, but as time went on and the crisis deepened we saw this spread to the suburbs, outer suburbs and now very regional areas,” she said.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/budgeting/unaffordable-ren…
# Australia, Rent.Dire housing affordability widening the wealth divide
Michael West Media (No paywall)Housing affordability has sunk to record lows, exacerbating the divide between Australia’s haves and have nots. Since March 2020, home values have climbed by 47.3 per cent, lifting the median dwelling value $280,000 to $872,500, property data firm Cotality found in its annual Housing Affordability Report on Tuesday. Over the same period, the median annual household income increased just 15 per cent to $104,390. Three out of four of Cotality’s affordability metrics – the price-to-income ratio, years to save a deposit, and the share of income needed for rent – have hit record highs.
https://michaelwest.com.au/dire-housing-affordability-widening-t…
# Australia, .Aussie housing is broken and these sold prices prove it
Brooko Moves (No paywall)These sold prices are pretty unbelievable when you consider these properties wouldn't have been worth even half just five years ago!
# Hot topic, Video Australia, .A Housing Complex Designed to Tackle Loneliness Wins Britain’s Best Building
Linda Poon Bloomberg (No paywall)Britain’s best new building is more than just a senior living center. The Appleby Blue Almshouse, which won this year’s prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize, brings one of the UK’s oldest forms of social housing to the modern era by incorporating designs that tackle loneliness and social isolation among older adults. The project is a modern enlarged version of an almshouse, a kind of charity-run social housing for low-income seniors that dates back to medieval times. Traditionally almshouses are tucked away on side streets or built in the countryside, with the idea of offering residents a quiet retreat from society. But leaders behind Appleby Blue felt that can leave people feeling disconnected from their communities.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-11-06/london-senior…
# International, Rent.Could new tenants’ rights usher in rent controls? Here’s why that wouldn’t necessarily be a positive
Nikhil Datta and Jan David Bakker The Conversation (No paywall)Housing and high rental costs have been a major issue for the UK in the past decade. While other countries have moved towards protections for renters, rent control has not been a widespread feature of the British rental market for over a generation. But now the new Renters’ Rights Act introduces provisions to protect tenants in England against rent increases. While the UK government says it “does not support the introduction of rent controls”, the act does allow tenants to appeal rent increases if they are above market rents.
https://theconversation.com/could-new-tenants-rights-usher-in-re…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Economists Hate This Idea. It Could Be a Way Out of the Affordability Crisis.
Neale Mahoney and Bharat Ramamurti The New York Times (Paywall)Democrats dominated the Nov. 4 elections, but the other big winner was price controls. In New York, the democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani ran for mayor on a simple promise to “freeze the rent,” cementing himself as the affordability candidate and propelling his extraordinary rise to City Hall. In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill, a moderate Democrat, scored a double-digit victory in the governor’s race after proposing to freeze electricity rates. After this month’s results, Americans can expect more Democrats of all stripes to run on controlling prices. This may terrify many economists, who have long dismissed price controls as failed policy. But, like it or not, voters are demanding short-term price relief, and temporary price controls may be the only viable way to provide it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/opinion/price-controls-afford…
# Hot topic International, Rent.