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
After 10-year probe, police recommend charging 54 people, 20 organisations over Grenfell Tower blaze
Mazoe Fored and Syan Vallance ABC (No paywall)Almost a decade since London's deadly Grenfell Tower fire disaster, police have asked prosecutors to consider charging 54 people and 20 companies and organisations. Seventy-two people died, including 18 children, after a refrigerator electrical fault sparked a fire that ripped through the 23-storey social housing building in North Kensington in June 2017. The public inquiry's final report in 2024 blamed the disaster on failings by the government, the construction industry and, most of all, the companies involved in fitting the exterior with flammable cladding that had been marketed as safe.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-30/grenfell-tower-police-rec…
# International, Public and community housing.Spain announces ban on evictions after protests over 87-year-old woman's removal from flat
Alys Davies and Guy Hedgecoe BBC (No paywall)Spain's coalition government has approved new housing measures following protests over the country's housing crisis, sparked by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home in Madrid last week. Ministers met on Tuesday to discuss the proposals, which include a ban on evictions until 2030. Announcing the measures, Health Minister Mónica García said they would bring relief to more than five million people - but opposition politician Míriam Nogueras said the agreement left "small landlords out in the cold".
# Must read International, Eviction, Rent.No regulations on too-hot homes likely until 2031
Kate Newton Radio NZ (No paywall)Advocates for people living in overheating new builds are dismayed that officials will not consider comprehensive changes to fix the issue until 2031. Residents of the glut of townhouses and apartments built in the last few years have repeatedly raised concerns about dangerous heat in their homes during summer, because of common design flaws. The Building Research Association (BRANZ) and Green Building Council are among organisations advocating for changes to the Building Code, which currently does not include any controls on overheating or maximum internal temperatures.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/community/1619940/no-regulations-on-t…
# International, Rent, Utilities water energy internet.With the Nation Watching, Corporate Landlords Seek to Kill Three Pro-Rent Control Campaigns in California
Patrick Range Mcdonald Substack (No paywall)Corporate landlords and their high-powered lobbying group, the California Apartment Association, are working to stop pro-rent control campaigns in three cities in California, and they’ve already dropped $20,000 to kill a pro-rent control measure in Redwood City. Big Real Estate is now rolling out misinformation campaigns to confuse and scare voters, with tenants and activists countering corporate landlords’ dirty tricks. If the underdogs win in November, it’ll be a major victory for tenants and the housing justice movement in the United States.
https://housingishumanright.substack.com/p/with-the-nation-watch…
# International, Rent.Owning a Home Is Seen as a Financial Holy Grail. But What If It Isn’t?
Michael Luca and Raymond Firman The Wall Street Journal (Paywall)In a 1931 address, Herbert Hoover argued that “to own one’s own home is a physical expression of individualism, of enterprise, of independence and of the freedom of spirit.” Nearly a century later, his reverence for homeownership remains part of the American psyche. That sentiment is reinforced from all sides. Realtors insisting you buy before you’re priced out of the market. Cocktail-party chatter recounting fortunes made simply by living in the same home for 20 years. Advice from well-meaning friends and family warning that renting is just throwing away money. But homeownership should be neither deified as a moral imperative nor presented as a sure-thing investment opportunity.
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/renting-buying-home-invest…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Rents increase to more than half median take-home pay across capitals
Liana Walker ABC (No paywall)The average apartment now costs half of the average Australian income to rent, with prices exceeding the 30 per cent housing stress mark even for six-figure earners, according to a new report. Housing advocacy group Everybody's Home has found renting a unit now costs more than half the median take-home pay of a single worker in every Australian capital city. The 2026 Priced Out report found apartments on average nationally cost $614 per week, making up 56 per cent of the take-home income of someone earning $70,000 — close to Australia's median income of $74,100.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-24/everybodys-home-rental-in…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.NDIS advocates push for alternatives to group homes as government looks to cut costs
Nas Campanella and Mary Lloyd ABC (No paywall)Jason Toppin's group home is more than a roof over his head. "This place means a lot to me. It's a part of me that no-one can take away," said the 47-year-old, who lives with a vision impairment and intellectual disability. "This is my happy place." He's firm friends with the four men he's shared the house with for 12 years. They all have similar disabilities and are of similar ages. Most evenings they settle in to watch TV together. On Friday nights they get takeaway and they visit their local milk bar on the weekends.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-29/ndis-supported-living-ser…
# Australia, .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, .