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
Nine’s property underquoting exposé is a work of immaculate timing
Glenn Dyer Crikey (No paywall)In property, an old adage is “location, location, location!” But don’t discount the importance of timing. Five days after Domain shareholders approved the sale of the company to US property listings group CoStar, the Nine papers ran big on Saturday, Sunday and today with a series of stories about systematic underquoting in the Sydney and Melbourne property markets.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/08/11/nine-property-underquoting-…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Australia is now a 'home owners' welfare state', and income inequality is worse than we think
Gareth Hutchens and Rhiana Whitson ABC (No paywall)Australia's income inequality is much worse than we think because official statistics ignore the income that home owners derive from their properties, leading economists say. New research finds Australia's extremely favourable tax treatment of owner-occupied housing is fuelling the problem, encouraging Australians to plough money into housing at the expense of everything else — leaving those without housing even further behind.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-13/australia-is-a-homeowners…
# Australia, .How a 'snowballing' $76 blockchain token trend could become the first rung on the property ladder for Australian renters
Dr Ehsan Noroozinejad Sky News (No paywall)Trying to save a 20 per cent deposit now feels like running on a treadmill that keeps speeding up. A recent analysis shows the average renter would need more than eight years to scrape one together, and that’s if rents stop jumping tomorrow. Many young Australians have quietly decided the old dream is broken. But a different path is opening on their phones: buy a sliver of a house for the price of a night out, collect rent the next morning, repeat.
https://www.skynews.com.au/insights-and-analysis/how-a-snowballi…
# Hot topic Australia, .Squatters removed from flood-damaged buyback homes in NSW Northern Rivers
David Kirkpatrick ABC (No paywall)A two-year stand-off between squatters occupying flood buyback homes and the NSW government has ended with sheriffs seizing multiple properties. The homes were purchased by the state government in response to the devastating 2022 floods. The squatters were given 20 minutes to remove their essential belongings from 10 homes in Lismore and Mullumbimby, which were then boarded up. Many of the squatters appeared to have anticipated the arrival of the NSW Sheriff's Office and had already left.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-06/lismore-squatters-removed…
# Hot topic NSW, Disasters, Eviction.What to expect when attending the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT).
Zuzia Buszewicz Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)These days, renting in NSW could be described as a series of unavoidable compromises. Low availability, high demand and ever-growing rental prices make for a tough market to navigate, even for those earning $100,000 a year or more1, and all the more so for renters on lower incomes. Consequently, you would be hard pressed to find a renter who’s happy with every aspect of their home. If the place is big enough, it’s likely either far from amenities or in need of long overdue repairs (or both). If the property is conveniently located, it’s often far more costly than the renter can actually afford.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/what-expect-when-attending-nsw-c…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Bond, Eviction, Rent, Tribunal NCAT.Developing Coffs Harbour foreshore will amount to a ‘desecration of the land’, traditional owners say
Douglas Connor The Guardian (No paywall)Traditional owners in Coffs Harbour are fighting against a “heartbreaking” proposal to build a six-storey private housing development near cultural heritage sites, in a project the state government says will “revitalise” the city’s foreshore. The proposal, still in the early planning stages, would see up to 250 residential dwellings and 200 short-stay units built on two “underutilised” lots within the 60-hectare foreshore precinct, subject to planning approvals.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/aug/10/coffs-har…
# NSW, .Victory for El Lago residents – but no action
Merilyn Vale Coast Community News (No paywall)Residents have received legal assistance in their struggle for basic improvements at the El Lago Waters Resort at The Entrance but it is yet to result in action on the ground. The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal issued orders that the residents be recognised as homeowners under the Residential Land Lease Communities Act. Central Coast Tenants Advice and Advocacy Service (CCTAAS) assisted nine homeowners – those who own their homes and rent the site – to lodge applications with NCAT after El Lago issued 90-day eviction notices late last year. CCTAAS represented the homeowners at their formal hearings which were held in May and the decision by the Tribunal was set down on June 11.
https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/central-coast/news/2025/08/vic…
# Hot topic NSW, Land lease communities.‘It is huge’: Plan to cram 31,000 more homes in Sydney’s inner west splits opinion
Megan Gorrey The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)Plans to encourage the construction of more than 30,000 new homes have divided Sydney’s inner west, as the local council faces pockets of backlash from residents of densely populated suburbs. The Inner West Council in May revealed its long-awaited proposal to boost housing supply after it objected to the government’s transport-oriented development (TOD) scheme to rezone land within 400 metres of dozens of train stations across Sydney to allow six- or seven-storey unit blocks.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-is-huge-plan-to-cram-31-0…
# NSW, .