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
Intergenerational Report charts falling fertility, aging population and housing divide
Clare Armstrong and Erin Handley ABC (No paywall)Younger Australians face working longer and struggling more to buy a home without the same early gains in income and wealth experienced by the generations before them. The latest Intergenerational Report released on Monday by Treasurer Jim Chalmers has laid out how an aging population and falling birth rate would reshape Australia's economy in the next 40 years.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-21/intergenerational-report-…
# Australia, .Homeless campers on Memorial Drive in Rockingham begin packing up
Kate Christian and Nicholas Perpitch ABC (No paywall)Homeless people living in a makeshift camp in Perth's south have started packing up their belongings after being ordered to leave the area by the end of today. WA Police and wildlife officers arrived at the camp on Memorial Drive in the City of Rockingham, about 50 kilometres south of Perth's CBD, just after 10am. That was the deadline given in a letter handed out to about 45 of the campers yesterday, ordering them to vacate the area today after failing to comply with a similar demand a week ago.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-24/homeless-campers-rockingh…
# Australia, Eviction.She was raised to chase the Australian Dream. Now this 23yo says mortgages are a trap — and Europe has the answer
Josephine Quattrocchi Daily Telegraph (No paywall)Opinion: I can say with near certainty I will never own a home and, instead, rent for life. And I am OK with that. But I never used to think this way. Raised by immigrant parents, who viewed home ownership as the ultimate form of security, I grew up believing renting was dead money. That was until I got a job and realised how different the housing market was when my parents were in their 20s compared to what the market is like for me, as a 23 year old, in 2026. Indeed, renting should not be framed as a short term ‘while you’re in your 20s’ kind of solution. Overseas, particularly in Europe, renting is ingrained in society and viewed as a socially acceptable way to live for individuals of all ages.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/the-home-front/s…
# Hot topic Australia, .Australia’s Housing Casino: the house always wins
Andrew Brown Michael West Media (No paywall)For thirty years Australia stopped building homes the way it builds hospitals and roads, and left shelter to a market that now prices a median home at 8.4 times a median income. In 1991, public and community housing was home to 7.1 per cent of households. Today it is 4. The answer is a public builder: government owned homes at cost rents, open to nurses and young families as well as people in crisis, lifted to at least 10 per cent of households, and a National Public Housing Summit to sign the deal. Suppose the Commonwealth announced tomorrow that it was getting out of hospitals.
https://michaelwest.com.au/australias-housing-casino-the-house-a…
# Australia, .Australian housing co-ops draw lessons from home and abroad at national summit
Co-op News (No paywall)Housing leaders, policymakers, co-operative housing providers, mutual banks and international experts gathered in Sydney last week for the ACHA Co-operative Housing Summit. Hosted by the Australian Co-operative Housing Alliance (ACHA), the summit took place at a time when one-third of Australian households rent and rental affordability continues to decline. ACHA says interest is growing in new approaches to improving housing affordability and security for renters. The event explored how co-operative housing models can contribute to addressing Australia’s housing challenges by providing affordable rents, strong communities and greater housing security.
https://www.thenews.coop/australian-housing-co-ops-draw-lessons-…
# Australia, .Housing advocates say policy reform needed to prevent premature waitlist cancellations
James C Taylor ABC (No paywall)Colin Betts dons his Santa suit, collects his vibrant signs painted with positive messages, and walks barefoot out to the roadside. Accompanied by his faithful dog, Meri Rose, the 66-year-old brandishes the signs to the honks and waves of the passing traffic. Nicknamed the Barefoot Santa of Gympie, Mr Betts has been a public fixture in the regional Queensland town for the past decade.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-01/housing-waitlist-cancella…
# Australia, Public and community housing.Tax rules deter home owners from letting spare rooms as affordable rentals
Lottie Twyford ABC (No paywall)Home owner Ali Bradley considers herself one of the lucky ones and would like to pay it forward by renting out some of her spare rooms at an affordable rate. But the tax implications have so far dissuaded the Brisbane mum, who is now entering the empty-nester stage, from doing so. "Cost and complexity, capital gains tax implications, income tax and also the complexity of regulations," she said. "From my point of view, we're in a housing crisis. We need a wider range of solutions and we don't need deterrents."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-28/homeowners-who-want-to-re…
# Australia, Boarders and lodgers.Push to solve housing inequality sparks more division
Michael West Media (No paywall)Every political party says that Australia is in the midst of a housing crisis, but they still can’t agree on how best to fix it.
Partisan differences have prevented another Senate inquiry into intergenerational housing inequity from charting a clear way forward, as it handed down its report on Wednesday. Greens senator and committee chair Barbara Pocock repeated calls in the report for more public housing, a national rent cap and low-interest mortgages for first-home buyers. The coalition, represented by opposition housing spokesman Andrew Bragg, once again promised to repeal Labor’s changes to negative gearing and the capital gains tax, slash the size of the construction code, and increase reporting requirements for Housing Australia.
https://michaelwest.com.au/push-to-solve-housing-inequality-spar…
# Hot topic Australia, .