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.
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
Melbourne 'affordable' housing tenants face 17 per cent rent increase
Pat McGrath ABC (No paywall)The operator of a new public-private affordable housing complex in Melbourne has hit residents with a rent increase of 17 per cent less than a year after they moved in. The Flemington development is the first example of the "Ground Lease Model" the Victorian government plans to roll out as part of its redevelopment of Melbourne's 44 public housing towers. When Alix Butler first stepped into her new, inner-Melbourne apartment last year, a feeling of relief washed over her. "It felt like we finally had a place to call home," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-04/ground-lease-affordable-h…
# Australia, Rent.Homebuyers turn to shared ownership in expensive Wollongong market
Penny Burfitt ABC (No paywall)It's morning tea time at Gem Romuld's Gwynneville home in Wollongong and there are plenty of hands to help wrangle two toddlers, clean up dishes and prepare the food. That's because Gem lives not only with her partner Dinah Too and their two young children Thea and Marlowe, but also with her friends Lexi Dickson and Renata Field and their nine-year-old son Finnley. This isn't a university share house — the adults purchased the property together in 2021 and have a co-living arrangement, meaning they co-own and live on the property.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-10/homebuyers-turn-to-shared…
# Must read Australia, Share houses.Dirty truth behind rise of horror living conditions in rental homes
Aidan Devine realestate.com.au (No paywall)Rental homes are increasingly descending into squalor, with problems ranging from festering mould to crumbling finishes, because their landlords are so buried in debt they cannot afford repairs. It comes as research from comparison group Finder.com.au revealed close to a third of renters across the country were waiting more than six months for issues to be fixed. Serious problems that were not being addressed promptly included water leaks, structural defects, mould and broken appliances, according to the results of the national survey.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/dirty-truth-behind-rise-of-ho…
# Australia, Rent.Revealed: How much more Aussie renters will pay in 2030
Owen Raymond realestate.com.au (No paywall)Apartment supply failing to keep up with population growth could see Aussies spending over $1000 per week on two-bedroom apartments by 2030, according to new data from CBRE’s Apartment Vacancy and Rent Outlook. The report states that by the end of the decade, rental shortages in Australia’s biggest cities will see vacancy rates drop drastically, driving up prices by an average of 24 per cent across our capitals.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/revealed-how-much-more-aussie…
# Australia, Rent.The hidden $50b tax break that could help solve the housing crisis
John Kehoe Australian Financial Review (Paywall)Treasurer Jim Chalmers lit a fuse under the debate about the taxation of wealth when he declared last month that there was consensus at his economic roundtable on the need for intergenerational fairness and a fair go for working people.
Chatter quickly turned to what the Labor government might consider taxing more to fund elevated government spending and pay for tax relief for working-age people struggling to afford to buy homes.
https://www.afr.com/policy/tax-and-super/the-hidden-50b-tax-brea…
# Australia, .Remote WA community buys prefab Chinese houses after decades in unfit homes
Alistair Bates and Charlie McLean ABC (No paywall)There are some nights Raylene Robinson would rather sleep under the open sky than in her government-sanctioned home. Mould creeps up the walls, floorboards warp at odd angles, and the tap won't stop running. "It's making me feel like I [should] go out bush and live for a while," the Martu elder says. Deep in the Western Desert, on the banks of an ephemeral salt lake, a remote housing crisis is leaving families to languish in overcrowded, crumbling, and improvised humpies. Bureaucratic deadlock and shifting government responsibility has seen 50 years pass without a new build.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-07/calls-for-housing-investm…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters.Western Australia housing crisis feeding into remote teacher shortage
Ruby Littler ABC (No paywall)A shortage of available housing is deterring would-be teachers from studying and working in Western Australia's far north, sparking fears one crisis is directly fuelling another. Student teachers keen to work at schools in the state's Kimberley are struggling to find anywhere to live while undertaking their placements. And with teacher resignations rising and graduate numbers falling across the state over the past five years, the WA teachers' union says remote towns such as Broome will feel the heaviest impact.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-07/housing-crisis-leading-to…
# Australia, .Thousands of Victorians with disabilities face losing their homes
Grant McArthur and Kieran Rooney The Age (Paywall)Thousands of Victorians with profound disabilities face the prospect of eviction from their group homes and the loss of carers they have relied on for years due to a funding stand-off between private providers, the state and the federal government. Almost 60 Victorian supported independent living homes caring for the state’s most vulnerable residents have been closed in the past 2½ years, and the not-for-profit organisations appointed to take over the state’s disability accommodation sector eight years ago have confirmed they are now operating with only one month’s cashflow.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/thousands-of-victori…
# Australia, Eviction.