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
WA rental protections second-worst in nation, National Shelter report finds
Cason Ho ABC (No paywall)The WA government says landlords will continue to be allowed to evict tenants for no reason, ruling out the possibility of bringing the state in line with other jurisdictions in outlawing the practice. WA and the NT are the only places in Australia where no grounds evictions are legal, and a new report has found the state has the second-worst protections for renters in the nation.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-23/wa-rental-protections-sec…
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Rent.Residents say former Moe Hospital could become public housing
Jack Colantuono ABC (No paywall)The former Moe Hospital, perched on a hill in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, has sat empty and derelict for almost 30 years. The site in Ollerton Avenue, Newborough, became a target of vandals after its closure in 1998. Now, with the hospital site listed for sale, Moe residents want it redeveloped into much-needed public housing. Jeff Kennett's Liberal government closed the Moe and Traralgon public hospitals in the early 1990s, replacing them with a larger hospital named Latrobe Regional Health midway between the two towns.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-15/moe-hospital-newborough-d…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Repairs.If we’re focused on fairness, it’s not the rich we should be worrying about
Millie Muroi The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When we talk about inequality, we tend to focus on income. After all, if some people are raking in thousands of dollars a week while others get by on just a few hundred dollars, that would seem to be a key contributor to inequality. Income inequality is certainly an issue, with the top one-fifth of Australian households taking home two-fifths of the country’s income. But it’s actually our distribution of wealth that’s the biggest driver of inequality between the “haves” and the “have-nots”. It’s also, crucially, holding us all back from economic growth.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/if-we-re-focused-on-…
# Australia, .In Paris it’s normal to raise a family in a three-bedroom apartment. Why aren’t we building more in Australia?
Jonathan Barrett The Guardian (No paywall)When Sydney couple Matthew Henderson and Jacqui Nissim realised their family had outgrown their two-bedroom apartment, they got creative. Given the unaffordable prices of a standalone house in Randwick, a vibrant suburb in the city’s east, they opted to renovate a sunroom. “We had to take a creative approach and create a flexible third bedroom,” Henderson says. “Otherwise we would need to move away from here, and we’d be moving further away from jobs, further away from work and schools.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/sep/13/in-paris-…
# Australia, .Housing makes otherwise smart people lose their grip on reality – here’s some ballast
Tim Williams The Fifth Estate (No paywall)In just one of many misdirects that abound in the housing debate, Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ budget papers wrongly suggested Australia was a bottom feeder in terms of global housing delivery, when in per capita terms it’s actually towards the top of the global table and twice as productive as the UK. But the corruption of the facts gets worse. Part of the problem with the Australian housing debate – best understood as a veritable “dialogue of the deaf” – is that it is too Australian.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/housing-makes-oth…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, .Lauren tried to get her bathroom fixed. Then she got told to leave
Jim Malo The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)A Melbourne renter says her magistrate landlord left her without a safe bathroom for a month, and when asked where she and her family would bathe was told by her property manager to use bathrooms in public facilities like pools and the library. The tenant eventually left after attempting to have the bathroom urgently repaired; experts say the stoush reflects a trend of tenants choosing to leave their homes rather than engage in a legal fight.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/lauren-tried-to-get-her-bat…
# Must read Australia, Eviction, Rent, Repairs.Eradicating mould would save millions in health-care costs: how our homes affect our health
Rebecca Bentley and Kate Mason The Conversation (No paywall)Housing is a key determinant of physical health. Housing conditions can increase or reduce the risk of problems including respiratory illness, heart disease and injury. Improving housing conditions would see an improvement in health at the population level and reduce health-care costs. In a study yet to be peer-reviewed, our research team has estimated eradicating mould and damp in Australian housing could cut health expenditure by A$117 million per million people, and increase income by $174 million. These figures represent 0.5%–2.1% of annual health spending and 0.08%–0.36% of gross domestic product.
https://theconversation.com/eradicating-mould-would-save-million…
# Must read Australia, Rent.ACT government and ACT Greens negotiate revived rental relief scheme
Emmy Groves ABC (No paywall)The ACT government has agreed in-principle to a replacement scheme for the axed Rent Relief Fund after talks with the ACT Greens. The fund had supported renters in financial stress with a payment up to $2,500. Kylie Johnson has experienced sleepless nights and fears of homelessness after struggling to pay rent due to financial hardship and health setbacks. The Canberra mother and former business owner said her family was kept afloat by the ACT government's Rent Relief Fund (RRF).
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-17/act-government-rent-relie…
# Hot topic Australia, .