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
After a hopeful start, Labor’s affordable housing fund is proving problematic
Katrina Raynor The Conversation (No paywall)When the Albanese government announced the A$10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund in 2023, the news reverberated through the housing sector. A new funding facility to help build 30,000 social and affordable rental homes in five years. Given we only increased Australia’s social housing stock by 24,000 dwellings in the decade to 2024, this represents a significant uptick. The future fund is part of the National Housing Accord’s overall commitment to build 1.2 million new homes by the end of the decade. This target is now in serious doubt following advice from Treasury.
https://theconversation.com/after-a-hopeful-start-labors-afforda…
# Australia, .£300 rent hike for Welsh Streets tenants scrapped
Lynette Horsburgh BBC (No paywall)People living in a famous set of Liverpool streets have been spared a rent hike that would have cost them an extra £300 a month. Tenants in The Welsh Streets, where Beatle Ringo Starr was born, have agreed a deal with landlord Placefirst. Up to 300 residents were set to be affected by the change, but the rent rise will now be capped at £60. Placefirst said it was "pleased" to reach a resolution that "represents a balanced and sustainable outcome for all parties". The Welsh Streets are named after the Welsh workers who built them and lived there in the late 19th Century.
# International, .I was on New York’s rent board. Zohran Mamdani’s ideas aren’t pie in the sky
Leah Goodridge The Guardian (No paywall)During the New York City mayoral primary campaign, Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for a citywide rent freeze became a contentious topic. The Democratic nominee says to achieve a cap on annual rent increases for the city’s 1m rent-stabilized apartments, he would appoint members to the city’s rent guidelines board who support it. Critics decry a rent freeze as a pie-in-the-sky, unrealistic proposal. I served as a rent guidelines board member for nearly four years, appointed by then mayor Bill de Blasio in 2018. And it’s clear this controversy isn’t just about rent freezes – there’s a larger agenda to deregulate rent-stabilized housing, under which rent ceilings prevent landlords from raising the rent too high and tenants must be offered renewal leases (unless the landlord shows legal reason not to).
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/14/new-york-r…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Landlords offering mental health check-ins aren’t going to solve the rental crisis
Katie Rosseinsky The Independent (No paywall)Just when you thought that the rental market couldn’t get more dystopian, it manages to outdo itself. The latest bleak new development for private renters? Landlords attempting to lure in prospective tenants with the promise of… mental health check-ins! The irony is painful, like when a tyrannical boss returns from an HR training session and starts telling their colleagues that it’s “OK not to be OK” (but, ideally, not on work hours, please).
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/renting-mental-health-l…
# Must read International, Rent.Evicted family struggling with unfit flat
BBC (No paywall)A woman who has been evicted from her home in Ealing where she was living with her disabled daughter and son says she is now struggling in temporary "inaccessible" accommodation. Kinga says the one-bed flat on the first floor of a house in Southall is not wheelchair accessible for her six-year-old daughter, Victoria, who has Phelan McDermid Syndrome which means she has difficulty walking and a developmental delay. It also means they now have a 90 minute journey on two buses to get to Victoria's school.
# International, Eviction.New Mexico flash flooding kills at least 3, including 2 young children; video shows floodwaters carrying away house
Kiki Intarasuwan, Brian Dakss and Alex Sundby CBS News (No paywall)Flash flooding from torrential rain hit Ruidoso, New Mexico, killing at least three people and prompting dozens of rescues, officials said. A house was seen being carried downstream Tuesday by the fast-moving water a year after the same area was devastated by two wildfires. Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford said during a news conference Wednesday the victims were a 4-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy and an unidentified man who was approximately 40-50 years old. Crawford didn't release the children's identities, saying it was out of respect for their families.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-mexico-ruidoso-lincoln-flooding…
# Hot topic International, Disasters.Madrid family win case against tourist flats after ‘illicit and unsanitary’ acts
Sam Jones The Guardian (No paywall)A judge in Madrid has ordered the closure of 10 tourist flats in a single building in the city centre after a landmark ruling that said “the illicit and unsanitary activities” taking place in them had inflicted psychological damage on a neighbouring family and violated their fundamental right to privacy. The family, who have two children and who have not been named, said they had suffered stress, anxiety and sleep deprivation because of the loud, drunken, destructive and lewd behaviour of guests, which included vandalism, vomiting and having sex in the block’s communal areas.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/jul/08/madrid-judge-shuts-…
# International, Rent.Young people are disporportionately affected by the EU's housing crisis
Maria Psara & Nikos Michos Euro News (No paywall)In 2023, EU households on average spent 19.7% of their disposable income on housing. Eurostat data shows that in the same time period, young people make up a significant share of those who spend at least 40% of their income. The severity of the European Union's housing crisis has made it harder for citizens to find a home, as a combination of housing supply shortages and high rents continues to be a major issue. According to Eurostat, house prices went up by 48% and rents went up by 22% in 2023. Meanwhile, inflation drove overall prices up by 36%. And the burden has largely affected younger people the most.
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/06/13/young-people-are-d…
# Hot topic International, .