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
Tax expert worried Australia on path to neo-feudal society as housing wealth drives inequality
Patrick Commins The Guardian (No paywall)One of the country’s leading tax experts says the explosion in housing wealth has put Australia on the path towards a neo-feudal society where your prosperity depends in large part whether your parents own land or property. The director of the Australian National University’s Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Bob Breunig, said “that’s the trajectory we’re on”. “I don’t think we are back to pre-French Revolution times, but I am worried about that,” he said during a second day of hearings by a parliamentary committee into the operation of the capital gains tax.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/24/australia…
# Australia, .HAFF Round 3: When Institutional Scale Trumps Community Control
Tobias Busch Land in Common (No paywall)Last week, two of HAFF’s four funding streams were fully subscribed in less than four days. The headlines will celebrate this as evidence of sector readiness. But let’s be clear about what actually happened: a $10 billion public investment was carved up by organisations with the capacity to lodge applications the moment the portal opened. The design of the tender ensures that funding flows to large, professionalised institutions rather than to the communities who will actually live in the housing being built.
https://landincommon.substack.com/p/haff-round-3-when-institutio…
# Hot topic Australia, .What it’s like for a renter – a personal perspective of the housing crisis
Nayan Das The Fifth Estate (No paywall)At one of the apartments that Nayan Das visited in the hope of finding another relatively short term home, having pretty much given up on owning a home, he met another prospective tenant who seemed a bit panicked. She had just a week to go before being officially homeless. Should he give up his application in her favour? Relatively speaking, I live in one of the greatest places on Earth – Australia. Beautiful beaches, dreamy night skies, and friendly people. Unfortunately, even the best places have flaws, and I am concerned about the housing crisis we have been facing since the onset of the COVID-19 lockdowns.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/what-its-like-for…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Starting a tenancy.Home ownership, renting and voting
Ben Raue Tallyroom (No paywall)Housing is one of the big issues in politics, not just in Australia, but across the Western world. Where you live and the value of your home is fundamental to a person’s lifestyle and position. As homes have increased in value, asset ownership has fundamental to someone’s position in society. And there is increasing evidence that home ownership tells us more about how someone might vote than their income or their job. Ben is joined by Shaun Ratcliff and Josh Goddard to discuss what we know about how home ownership (or asset ownership more broadly) influences voting trends. We discuss Josh’s research looking at 14 different Western democracies, and also hear from Shaun about more research closer to home.
# Audio Australia, .Indigenous family faces eviction despite paying off rental debt
Giovanni Torre National Indigenous Times (No paywall)An Indigenous family in Boorloo/Perth is facing eviction from community housing despite paying off a rental debt. Nicola Torres and her two daughters have lived in a home managed by Foundation Housing since 2021. The rent for the community housing home, which Foundation Housing leases from the state government, should be means tested - but when Ms Torres temporarily stopped working in 2025 after a traumatic experience, her rent was not reduced. She went into arrears and Foundation Housing pursued eviction proceedings. Ms Torres then received a compensation payment related to the traumatic experience which had caused her to stop working for a time and paid the rent in full.
https://nit.com.au/06-01-2026/22015/indigenous-family-faces-evic…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Eviction, Rent.Pat is living in a 'dangerous' and run-down home. They've been hit with a rent increase
Alexandra Koster SBS (No paywall)When Pat — not their real name — received a rental increase from their real estate agent, they couldn't believe it. The Sydney house they share with three others has leaks in the roof, several broken doors, a washing machine with defunct plumbing — meaning the household needs to use a laundromat — as well as what Pat describes as "large-scale" damage to the home's foundation. "We had a couple of tiles collapse earlier in the year and it took a month to get it fixed up," Pat told SBS News.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/pat-is-living-in-a-dangerous…
# Hot topic NSW, Rent, Repairs.Astonishing detail in 'cheap' $280-per-week studio rental sparks major housing warning: 'Power imbalance'
Kamilia Palu Yahoo News (No paywall)A private studio listing with waterfront views, a parking space and a weekly rent that's half the price of other units in the area sounds like the ultimate bargain. So what's the catch? The property that was up for lease for $280 a week in the southwest Sydney suburb of Peakhurst was advertised as being close to public transport, shopping centres and amenities. The median price of a one bedroom unit in the area is $570 per week.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/astonishing-detail-in-cheap-280-per-we…
# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent.This is how housing prices fall
Alan Morris The Fifth Estate (No paywall)In the decade up to June 2017, Sydney experienced a phenomenal increase in residential property prices. There existed what was described as “a frenzied property market” and over this period house prices nationally increased by around 75 per cent in real terms. However, the seemingly never-ending surge came to an abrupt end – the median house price in Sydney in March 2019 was $1,027,962, a drop of $170,000 or 14 per cent from its peak in mid-2017 and in the eight capital cities, prices dropped by about 11.5 per cent.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/housing-2/this-is-how-house-prices…
# NSW, .