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
Rent bidding is now illegal, but tenants say it's still happening
Jarni Blakkarly CHOICE (No paywall)When Sydney renter Seamus was looking for a home in 2021, he applied for a two-bedroom apartment with a major real estate agency in the inner western suburbs. The property was listed at $750 per week online, but after Seamus applied, the real estate agent called him and asked if he would be willing to go to $800 to secure the property. It's called rent bidding, where renters are either encouraged by real estate agents or decide on their own to offer more money than a property is listed for in a bid to secure a place to live amid a severe shortage of available housing on the market.
https://www.choice.com.au/money/property/renting/articles/rent-b…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media Australia, Starting a tenancy.Last resort: when the only option left amid Australia’s housing crisis is a motel
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)Blanche is a lot of things: a mother of eight and a grandmother of 10. A viral TikToker. A survivor of family and domestic violence. A former drug user, clean for nearly two years. And she is, for the moment, housed. To the 49-year-old, the two-bedroom community housing she has in Melbourne’s west feels palatial. She previously spent seven months living in a hotel room with her youngest son, then aged nine. Before that, they were wrapped in blankets on the street. They spent four years bouncing around. “I thought having a drug addiction was hard but being homeless is harder,” she says.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/aug/04/last-reso…
# Must read Australia, .More than bricks and mortar: Aboriginal-led construction behind safe housing for survivors of domestic and family violence
Jarred Cross National Indigenous Times (No paywall)A new refuge for women and children escaping family violence in regional New South Wales is due to open its doors in 2026. The state government-funded, Aboriginal-led construction is set to deliver a six two-bedroom, culturally-safe, safety-specific and trauma-informed designed crisis accommodation in Walgett Shire. The project is funded with $6.2 million via the state's Core and Cluster program, with Murdi Paaki Regional Housing Corporation behind the build. Muurdi Parki was established 1997 initially to protect and manage Aboriginal housing stock at risk of being sold by liquidators and administrators.
https://nit.com.au/01-08-2025/19416/not-just-bricks-and-mortar-a…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Domestic violence.Lawyer says tenants 'crushed' by court ruling they must leave mobile home park
Darryl Greer Times Colonist (No paywall)The chief of the Songhees Nation says a group of mobile home park residents on the nation’s reserve are continuing to resist being evicted after losing a court challenge, while its members live in “unsafe housing, unable to access their own lands.” Chief Ron Sam says most of the nation’s members can’t live on the reserve due to lack of housing, and the Songhees Nation’s government gave residents of the mobile home park three years’ notice to relocate “to make way for urgently needed community housing.” Some tenants challenged the eviction in court, and lost the case last month.
https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/lawyer-says-tenants-cru…
# Must read International, Eviction, Land lease communities, Rent.Mark Humphries: ‘When did the Australian dream go from owning your own home to owning somebody else’s?’
Katie Cunningham The Guardian (No paywall)Mark Humphries has moved house five times in the past seven years. First was the place in the Sydney suburb of Turramurra he had to vacate because it was, “forgive me for saying this – leaking like a giant breast from the ceiling”. Next came a house so damp, mushrooms began growing under the carpet; a small flat that was OK except for being utterly freezing, and another one-bedroom apartment where the rent went from $500 to $660 a week, forcing his exit.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/jul/26/mark-humphr…
# Hot topic Australia, .People in Luxembourg largely back tougher government housing policies
Lucrezia Reale Luxembourg Times (No paywall)More than half of residents in Luxembourg support stronger government action to tackle the country’s housing crisis, according to a survey published on Friday by the Housing Observatory. Drawing from a representative sample of households nationwide, the study - commissioned by the Housing Ministry in collaboration with the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-economic Research (Liser) - examined attitudes toward housing challenges such as affordability, access and market regulation, as well as views of respondents on how these issues are currently addressed by the state.
https://www.luxtimes.lu/luxembourg/people-in-luxembourg-largely-…
# International, Rent.Landlord argued he should not have to live in a ‘lesser property while renting out a superior one’
Jack White Irish Times (No paywall)A notice of termination issued by a landlord who argued he should not have to live in a “lesser property while renting out a superior one” has been deemed invalid by a Residential Tenancies Board tribunal. George Adegbite, who sought to terminate the tenancy, claiming he required the house for his family, said although he owned three other properties in Drogheda, Co Louth, the house in Termon Abbey was “the most expensive”. Mr Adegbite argued that he is entitled to choose where he wishes to reside. He said if his tenant, Sandra Otobore Itobore, had been living in one of his other rented properties, “he would have left her there”.
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/housing-planning/2025/07/23/l…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent.Wellington MP backs bold New York-style housing shake-up for capital
Harriet Laughton The Post (No paywall)Could Wellington take a leaf out of New York’s book when it comes to housing? Despite their obvious differences, Wellington and New York do have over-priced rentals of subpar quality in common. But rent controls that limit what landlords can charge and tenancy associations that give power to tenants are some of the New York housing policies that Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul thinks could provide solutions. On a recent visit to the city, Paul found there were valuable lessons in the way New York was responding, including bold ideas by mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360766157/wellington-mp-backs-…
# Hot topic International, Rent.