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
Amsterdam’s squatter wars are back – and wealthy Dutch homeowners have only themselves to blame
Senay Boztas The Guardian (No paywall)The late Dutch author and Holocaust survivor Marga Minco once wrote about an empty house in Amsterdam where she and a group of artists and students took refuge towards the end of the second world war. Last month, the house she lived in for decades was squatted by a new generation of the dispossessed. In the Dutch capital’s overpriced, overcrowded housing market, where homes fetch more per square metre on average than they do in London, the squatters, or krakers, are back.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/26/amsterdam-…
# International, .In Spain, short-term rentals surge despite bid to rein in overtourism
Reuters (No paywall)MADRID, June 2 (Reuters) - The supply of short-term rentals for tourists has jumped 25% in Spain over the last two years, a study by tourism lobby group Exceltur found, despite the local governments' attempts to curtail them amid a housing crisis. The boom in tourist accommodation is growing at an above- average pace in several of the top 50 tourist municipalities and destinations which accounted for half of all international visitor arrivals in 2024, the Exceltur study added. Spain has been looking for ways to restrict the number of homes rented to tourists following a post-pandemic boom in visitors, amid protests by residents who blame overtourism for a spike in rental or home purchase prices.
https://www.reuters.com/world/spain-short-term-rentals-surge-des…
# International, .Dunedin flats not cleaned before students move in
Bella Craig Radio NZ (No paywall)Vomit up the walls, buckets of faeces on the lawn and surfaces covered in damp and mould - that is what many students are confronted with when they move into their North Dunedin flats. The local students association calls the area a "slum" and says some landlords do not even bother checking if a property is habitable before they hand the keys over to the next set of tenants. Students have told Checkpoint the state of their accommodation has been having serious effects on their physical and mental health and their studies.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/571024/dunedin-flats-not-cle…
# International, Rent.The Guardian view on build-to-rent: hardly a solution to the housing crisis
The Guardian (No paywall)To an outside eye, English cities might seem deliberately designed to foment a housing crisis. Unconstrained by craggy topography or fortified ramparts, their Victorian developers built endless streets of low-rise terraces. Cities that expanded during the Industrial Revolution are less dense than their European equivalents and have far fewer flats. Their private rental sectors are fragmented, dominated by small-time landlords for whom property ownership is often a second career.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/24/the-guardi…
# International, .Is owning a home still the American dream? Why older Americans are choosing to rent
Kristen Altus Fox Business (No paywall)"I'm definitely saving money. I don't have the same expenses as I did before, carrying a house and a mortgage. So, I'm definitely much freer than I was, and lighter," 60-year-old advertising creative director Philippa "Pippa" White told Fox News Digital. "I'm in my renaissance, actually." White is one of many renters joining a growing trend, as rising property taxes, insurance and repair costs push people 55 and older to sell their homes and consider renting.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/owning-home-still-american-dre…
# International, Rent.Owners mulling legal action if Maui County’s short-term rental bill passes. Could it stand up in court?
Colleen Uechi Maui Now (No paywall)At about 70 condo complexes where short-term rentals could become illegal under a proposed bill before the Maui County Council, property owners have been watching, waiting and talking with their lawyers. “We’re waiting to see if it does pass, and if it does, along with our attorney, we’ll take a look at it,” said Cindy Bulger, president of the board at the 188-unit Hale Kamaole in Kīhei. “I can’t say that we’ve made any final decision. I think we really want to review our options before we make a decision on that.”
https://mauinow.com/2025/08/24/owners-mulling-legal-action-if-ma…
# International, .New data shows rental affordability reaches crisis point in Northern Rivers
NBN News (No paywall)New data shows rental affordability has reached a crisis point in the Northern Rivers. The rental affordability index released today, shows the region has been one of the hardest hit across the country.
https://www.nbnnews.com.au/2022/11/29/new-data-shows-rental-affo…
# Video NSW, Rent.We can’t just build our way out of Australia’s housing problems
Andi Nygaard Inside Story (No paywall)Housing minister Clare O’Neil says it’s “just too hard” to build houses in this country because “builders face a ridiculous thicket of red tape.” That must change, she says, if we’re to tackle the “fundamental problem” and “build more homes, more quickly.” This is the dominant view of Australia’s housing challenge — homes are too expensive to rent and buy because we don’t build enough of them, and we don’t build enough of them because there’s too much regulation. The proposed solution is to reform zoning, planning and building rules to unlock more supply.
https://insidestory.org.au/we-cant-just-build-our-way-out-of-aus…
# Hot topic Australia, .