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
The rent is so high, even suburbanites are taking roommates
Andrea Riquier Yahoo News (No paywall)From Bert and Ernie to Will and Grace, roommate situations in cities are so familiar that they’ve become ingrained in American popular culture. But now the housing affordability crisis is expanding roommate life far beyond the big cities where many Americans start their young adult lives. An analysis from SpareRoom, an online roommate search tool, shows that small cities are seeing more than double the number of users searching for roommates as in years past.
https://finance.yahoo.com/economy/articles/rent-high-even-suburb…
# International, Share houses.Renting may be the housing policy Vietnam needs most today
Vo Tri Thanh Asia News Network (No paywall)HANOI – For generations, owning a home has been one of the strongest aspirations of Vietnamese families. A house is not only a place to live but also a symbol of security, stability and financial achievement. That mindset remains deeply rooted in society today. Yet housing is more than a personal ambition. Under Article 22 of the 2013 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam, citizens have the right to lawful residence, and the State has a responsibility to create conditions that enable people to exercise that right. The question today is whether the current housing model is delivering on that promise. For millions of Vietnamese, securing adequate housing is becoming increasingly challenging.
https://asianews.network/renting-may-be-the-housing-policy-vietn…
# International, Rent.Changing tax rules for investors won’t shrink housing supply or raise rents. Just look at Victoria
Jonathan Barrett and Luca Ittimani The Guardian (No paywall)The Albanese government is preparing to unveil a budget that will recast housing as shelter – rather than a financial tool – in changes that have already sparked heated warnings that rents will rocket and housing supply will be curtailed. Those warnings are best ignored. It is now clear that Labor will usher in changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax designed to make property less attractive to new investors. The government will have ample protection for existing property investors, known as grandfather provisions, which will give it some protection from a political backlash as it transitions Australia away from an unfair system without burning it to the ground.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/may/11/changing-…
# Hot topic Australia, .Tasmanian public housing tenants in unlivable and unhealthy conditions, and needing help from regulator
Adam Holmes ABC (No paywall)Dana Wing just wants her family to live in a house that doesn't risk making them sick. For the past six months, they have been unable to safely use their shower in their Homes Tasmania public housing property due to mould inundation behind the walls. It's spread to other parts of the house — and there's nothing the family with four children can do about it. "It makes it hard to try to have baths in the morning of school, especially coming into winter and the colder weather," Ms Wing said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-04/unliveable-unsafe-public-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Repairs.How a low-income renter found secure, affordable rental housing
Rhiannon Stevens ABC (No paywall)Melbourne's skyline opens in front of Iain's couch like a pop-up book, and when he looks over it, he almost can't believe it: "It's like, 'Oh my God, I can see the world.'" Iain's previous rental was a sinking, water-damaged one-bedroom flat that he struggled to afford. What he sees now from his fifth-floor apartment isn't just a view, it's an opportunity. In Australia, Iain is a statistical anomaly. The low-income "forever renter" has found an affordable, rent-controlled apartment in a central location and a long-term lease. At a time when the number of home owners in Australia is declining, and many renters are experiencing financial stress and insecure leases, Iain feels lucky.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-07/rent-housing-affordabilit…
# Australia, .Federal government has missed one idea to get housing back on track: build more homes
Alan Kohler ABC (No paywall)If it's serious about improving intergenerational fairness and housing affordability in this week's budget, perhaps the government should just build some houses. That's about as likely as my last bright idea of nationalising child care, but back when housing was affordable, public housing was an important part of the mix. Whitlam tried to restart it after Menzies slashed it, but the states resisted, and since then, federal governments have exited public housing. The Housing Australia Future Fund's support for community housing is a good policy, but it is too limited.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-11/federal-budget-housing-bu…
# Australia, .How the federal budget could ease the regional housing crisis
Sinead Mangan, Georgia Loney, Louise Miolin and Hannah Ross ABC (No paywall)Owning your own patch of Australia, preferably with a quarter-acre block and a Hills hoist in the back, was the great Aussie dream. Tired of city life, or priced out of the capitals, many Australians took their lead from country singer John Williamson and looked to the regions to find their home among the gum trees. Now that dream is out of reach for many. So how did this happen, and could the upcoming budget fix the regional housing crisis?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-09/regional-housing-crisis-f…
# Australia, .Against ‘Affordable’ Housing
Dominic Behrens and Ethan Gilbert Inflection Points (No paywall)In 2025, The Guardian Australia reported that ‘affordable’ housing tenants were being forced to use ‘poor doors’—a back entrance that separated them from market-rate tenants within the same building. The backlash to this reporting was strong. The New South Wales Greens labelled the situation “dystopian”; others called it “apartment apartheid". The building that sparked the controversy is Watermans Residences, a 30-storey tower completed in 2024. It is located right on Sydney Harbour, in Barangaroo, where the median rent for a two-bedroom unit is currently a staggering $2,400 a week, or $124,800 annually. So-called ‘affordable’ housing in the building rented for less than that: an estimated $1,800 a week; $93,600 annually. As part of the trade for reduced rents, ‘affordable’ housing tenants are unable to access the pool, gym, or even, yes, the main entrance. And for all this they’re still paying almost the entirety of a median Australian salary in rent.
https://inflectionpoints.work/articles/against-affordable-housing
# Australia, .