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
Economists Hate This Idea. It Could Be a Way Out of the Affordability Crisis.
Neale Mahoney and Bharat Ramamurti The New York Times (Paywall)Democrats dominated the Nov. 4 elections, but the other big winner was price controls. In New York, the democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani ran for mayor on a simple promise to “freeze the rent,” cementing himself as the affordability candidate and propelling his extraordinary rise to City Hall. In New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill, a moderate Democrat, scored a double-digit victory in the governor’s race after proposing to freeze electricity rates. After this month’s results, Americans can expect more Democrats of all stripes to run on controlling prices. This may terrify many economists, who have long dismissed price controls as failed policy. But, like it or not, voters are demanding short-term price relief, and temporary price controls may be the only viable way to provide it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/16/opinion/price-controls-afford…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Will the government meet its target of building 1.5m homes? | ITV News
itv News (No paywall)"The only time that I need help, I have been completely failed" says Geraldine, who is set to be evicted from her home with her 12 year old daughter. She cannot afford anywhere else. The government was elected promising to make housing more affordable and is now vowing to 'build baby build'. Investigations Editor tells Daniel Hewitt tells Lucy Watson what progress the government is making on its pledge to build 1.5m new homes by the end of this parliament, as well as what hope new renters' rights will bring.
# Hot topic, Video International, Eviction, Rent.Child care expenses top the cost of rent in dozens of U.S. cities, analysis finds.
Mary Cunningham CBS News (No paywall)As child care costs soar, many Americans today find themselves paying more for a caregiver than they do for their monthly rent, according to a new analysis. Child care costs for parents with two kids exceed rental costs in 85 of the country's largest metro areas, personal finance site LendingTree found. In Omaha, Neb., Milwaukee, Wis., and Buffalo, N.Y., which have the highest child care costs in the country relative to local rents, families with an infant and a 4-year-old under care on average pay more than double the cost of their rent.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/child-care-costs-rent-lendingtree/?…
# International, Rent.The cost-of-living cuts millions of households are being forced to make
Vicky Shaw The Independent (No paywall)Over half of British households have been forced to make financial adjustments to cover essential costs in recent weeks, marking the highest level recorded this year, according to consumer champion Which?. A survey found 52 per cent of respondents altered spending in the month to mid-October, impacting utility bills, housing, and groceries. This equates to an estimated 14.8 million households nationwide, a peak not seen since December 2024.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/households-bills…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Utilities water energy internet.Council sorry for 'serious' social housing failures
Thomas Hanway BBC (No paywall)The leader of Arun District Council has offered a "sincere and unreserved" apology to its tenants over its housing service score. Liberal Democrat council leader Martin Lury said at a meeting the lowest possible C4 rating given by the social housing regulator in August highlighted "serious failings" by the local authority, including a failure to meet health and safety requirements relating to fire safety and smoke detection. "These failings have spanned many years and many administrations and we fully accept that over this time this has been unacceptable," said Mr Lury. "We have accepted the regulator's findings in full and are determined to put things right."
# International, Public and community housing, Rent.Median Rent In Aotearoa Drops To Two And A Half Year Low
Scoop News NZ (No paywall)The national median weekly rent has fallen to $610 in October, the lowest since May 2023, signalling a continued cooling in the rental market, according to Trade Me's latest Rental Price Index. The country’s median weekly rent decreased $10 on September and is also down 4 per cent compared to the same month last year.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2511/S00266/median-rent-in-aot…
# International, Rent.The Guardian view on rogue landlords: past failures do not augur well for the new era of renters’ rights
The Guardian (No paywall)Tenants need rights. Apart from food and water, shelter is the most basic human need and relevant to almost everyone all the time – unlike, say, healthcare, which most people do not use on a daily basis. A rebalancing of the law towards renters and away from landlords, which the government has done in its Renters’ Rights Act, was sorely needed. Failures and abuses of power have been ignored for too long.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/18/the-guardi…
# International, Rent.New York Lacked an Affordable Housing Portal. So These Teenagers Made One.
Dan Levin The New York Times (Soft Paywall)When Beckett Zahedi was in the fifth grade, he’d accompany his recently divorced father and younger sister on a grueling New York City ritual: the hunt for an affordable apartment. On weekends, they’d trudge through fruitless viewings in Brooklyn, jostling through crowds and sidestepping cockroaches until the elder Zahedi finally found a place to rent. “I wanted to make sure that they felt comfortable in the place, and it’s hard to find something, so he had this experience over and over of being rejected,” Caveh Zahedi said of his son.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/realestate/affordable-housing…
# Hot topic International, Rent.