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
AI & tenancy advice: Helpful tool or hidden risk?
Brendan Ross Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Whether it’s ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude or Gemini, AI tools are becoming increasingly part of everyday information-seeking and problem-solving. They are always online, and can help break down complex material and offer quick explanations when people are under pressure. It can feel like talking to a confident person, which – as social creatures – we find trust-worthy. They can also create professional and confident-sounding documents, which is an area people can struggle with when trying to address a legal issue or go to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT).
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/ai-and-tenancy-advice-helpful-to…
# Must read NSW, Rent, Tribunal NCAT.I inspected the CHEAPEST house in Sydney, Australia
Brooko Moves (No paywall)For the low price of $1.5 million you can pick up a house with mould, cracks in the wall, a tarp keeping the rain out, and masking tape holding the floor together! BARGAIN!!
# Video, Satire NSW, .Marrickville timber yard to become NSW's largest rental hub
7 News (No paywall)Work is underway to transform a Marrickville timber yard into a $1.5 billion residential hub. All the homes will be rentals, and it's shaping up to be the largest precinct of its kind in NSW.
# Video NSW, .Sydney homebuyers face painful 33-year wait
Owen Raymond realestate.com.au (No paywall)Home buyers have been told to brace for decades of financial pain, with the average purchaser in some Sydney suburbs required to wait until the year 2059 to finally be better off than renters each month. New rental price forecasts have revealed the “crossover date” between monthly mortgage repayments and rents, where repaying a mortgage finally becomes cheaper than paying market rent. The PropTrack revealed that a typical Sydney buyer at today’s prices will have to wait 13 years – until 2039 – for market rents to finally become more expensive than their repayments, at which point owning a home becomes cheaper than renting. This constituted nearly half the length of a typical 30-year mortgage.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/sydney-homebuyers-face-painfu…
# NSW, .Better solution to housing crisis
Theodore Brown Coast Community News (No paywall)As our housing crisis deepens, and our high-rise apartment buildings keep falling down, I wonder if there is a better solution than what we’ve chosen. The 2021 Census found that 61% of all Central Coast households have two or less people, including 27% that have only one person. Also, 60% of households don’t have any children. So it’s ridiculous that most new housing is detached houses with three-plus bedrooms, justified by needing space to raise children, when this meets the needs of well under half our population. But on the flipside, the quality of high-rise apartments is dismal.
https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/central-coast/news/2026/03/bet…
# Hot topic NSW, .Research Study Invitation: 'Lodging Houses: a framework for coherent policy and practice'
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Researchers from UNSW Sydney, the University of Sydney, Swinburne University of Technology and Curtin University are conducting a research study about lodging houses. Lodging houses (including boarding houses, co-living and other forms of shared accomodation) can contribute to affordability, accessibility and support delivery, but they also come with risks. If you live in a lodging house (as defined above), or have previously lived in a lodging house, you are invited to participate in an interview for the research study. Interviews are expected to take about 45 minutes. Participation is confidential, and participants will receive a $50 shopping voucher to acknowledge their contribution to the research study.
https://www.tenants.org.au/news/research-study-invitation-lodgin…
# Must read NSW, Boarders and lodgers.https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/what-negative-gearing-and-capital-gains-tax-do-heres-the-data-heres-the-evidence/
Alan Morris The Fifth Estate (No paywall)It is evident that the federal government is concerned about the substantial and increasing inequity in the housing market and appears to be contemplating changes to the extremely generous tax benefits that accrue to investors in residential property. Clearly, something needs to be done. The phenomenal scale of the present tax incentives around property is indicated by the revenue forgone. In 2024-2025, the estimated revenue forgone by the federal government due to negative gearing was $6.5 billion, and $5.490 billion was lost to the capital gains tax discount, $11.990 billion in total.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/what-negative-gea…
# Hot topic Australia, .Pressure mounts for mandatory disclosure of home energy efficiency ratings
Joshua S Hill Renew Economy (No paywall)The Royal Automobile Association (RAA) is calling on the South Australia government to mandate the disclosure of energy efficiency ratings for all homes at the point of sale or lease, to give buyers and renters an idea of what their cooling and heating bills might look like. According to the RAA, 70 per cent of South Australia’s housing stock was built before minimum energy efficiency standards were introduced, back in 2003. At the time, the standards required new houses to be built with a rating equivalent to between 3.5 and 4 stars, depending on the state.
https://reneweconomy.com.au/pressure-mounts-for-mandatory-disclo…
# Australia, Utilities water energy internet.