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
Tribunal sides with tenant in test of new laws on pets in NSW rental properties
Sarah Moss ABC (No paywall)Casey Munro says his life has changed for the better since new laws making pet ownership easier for rental tenants came into force in New South Wales. Under new rules in place since May, a landlord cannot reject a tenant's application to keep a pet without a valid reason. Three months on, Mr Munro's border collie dog Elsie — who was living with his mother — has moved in with him. "Allowing me to have a dog improved my fitness, my mental health and just … my living standards," he said. But for Mr Munro, the application process was not without challenges.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-17/tribunal-sides-with-tenan…
# Must read, Hot topic, Legal significance NSW, Pets, Rent, Tribunal NCAT.Tiny house eviction notice for Bega Valley couple amid dispute on moveable dwellings
Isla Evans and Floss Adams ABC (No paywall)Josh Heins and Manu Bohn's 12-square-metre home in the New South Wales Bega Valley could be viewed as too small for comfort. Mr Heins described it as being "as long as the biggest crocodile recorded, but not quite as tall as the average giraffe". "Everything's pretty cramped," he said. "But it fits us. It fits all the things that we love." However, their dwelling has fallen foul of local council rules and they may lose their home.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-19/tiny-house-eviction-bega-…
# Must read NSW, Eviction.More than two-thirds of NSW public land suitable for housing sold to private developers
Anne Davies The Guardian (No paywall)The New South Wales government has sold more than two-thirds of publicly owned sites identified as surplus and suitable for housing to private developers as a result of its much-vaunted statewide property audit. Many sites are being sold without requirements for social or affordable housing. Despite a Labor policy directing that government land suitable for housing should be prioritised for public housing, Homes NSW has bought just three of the 55 sites that have been identified for sale. It is now in the planning stage to construct 208 homes. It has expressed interest in a further seven sites.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/aug/20/more-than…
# Hot topic NSW, .Vulnerable youth non-for-profit Allambi Care agrees to end 'unacceptable' housing scheme
Alexander Lewis ABC (No paywall)A vulnerable youth not-for-profit accused of subsidising the property investments of its staff can now be revealed, after a forensic audit over its use of taxpayer funds. Allambi Care, which provides out of home care for young people, has agreed to end a scheme that allowed staff to purchase an investment property and lease it to the organisation for above market rent, according to the NSW families minister.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-19/allambi-care-investment-p…
# NSW, .Woman in custody accused of setting own home on fire
NBN News (No paywall)A woman is in custody tonight, accused of setting fire to her Lake Macquarie home. Police, firefighters and ambulance crews raced to the scene last night but the house couldn’t be saved.
https://www.nbnnews.com.au/2025/08/18/woman-in-custody-accused-o…
# Video NSW, Disasters.Trump orders homeless people he passed en route to golf course to leave Washington DC
Robert Mackey The Guardian (No paywall)In a social media post on Sunday, Donald Trump has demanded homeless residents of Washington DC leave the country’s capital or face eviction, and again promised to use federal officers to jail criminals, even though violent crime in the city was at a 30-year low when he took office in January. “The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Sunday morning, shortly after being driven from the White House to his golf club in Virginia. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/10/trump-homeless-g…
# Must read International, .Why have we let side-hustle private landlords seize control of our housing – and our politics?
Peter Apps The Guardian (No paywall)In the 1970s, private landlordism in the UK was a fringe part of the market – and a dying one. With council housing plentiful and house prices within the range of those with decent, working-class jobs, we did not need private landlords. In the mid-1970s, the Conservative Policy Council had written that their decline was “quite irreversible” and that within a generation they would be “as extinct as the dinosaur”.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/12/private-la…
# International, .Illegal house-sharing exposed by BBC undercover filming
Tarah Welsh and Zack Adesina BBC (No paywall)In the middle of the night, says Maria, groups of people can sometimes be seen moving into houses in her neighbourhood, far more than would seem to fit comfortably in the Victorian terraced homes. Each of these houses has 10 to 15 people living inside, she estimates. Maria, an architect, suspects they are being illegally rented. "They're everywhere," she says. Maria contacted Your Voice, Your BBC News after spending years complaining about these homes to her local authority in east London, Newham Council. We began investigating - and found a widespread black-market rental sector where people are forced to live in unsafe spaces.
# International, Rent.