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
Managing mould, housemates, and landlords: new research reveals sharehousing horror stories
Zoe Goodall and Deb Batterham The Conversation (No paywall)Sharehousing has traditionally been a rite of passage for many young people and students in Australia, but is also increasingly common among all age groups. Conflicts with landlords – over issues such as repairs, leaks or mould – are too often part of the renting experience. Our new research explores how renting is complicated for sharehouses – where relationships between housemates can vary from a tight-knit group of friends who share everything and care for each other, to renting a room from a stranger. Our paper, published today in the journal Housing, Theory and Society, is based on interviews with 25 sharehouse tenants in Melbourne.
https://theconversation.com/managing-mould-housemates-and-landlo…
# Australia, Rent.The states and territories where renters have it the best — and worst
Alexandra Koster SBS (No paywall)A new national report card has found that two years after the National Cabinet promised a 'Better Deal for Renters', most states are still lagging — leaving millions vulnerable to unfair rent hikes, arbitrary evictions and unsafe homes. The report, released by the National Association of Renters' Organisations (NARO) and National Shelter, examined whether governments have delivered on their 2023 commitment to "harmonise and strengthen" renters' rights. At the time, leaders pledged to develop a "nationally consistent policy" on reasonable grounds for eviction, limit rent increases to once a year, phase in minimum rental standards and improve protections for tenants.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/new-report-card-shows-where-…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Eviction, Rent, Utilities water energy internet.Rent crisis: Eviction loopholes exposed
Viva Hyde realestate.com.au (No paywall)Aussie renters remain trapped in a postcode lottery of insecure leases, soaring rents and substandard homes, two years on from a national pledge to deliver a better deal for long-suffering tenants. A report ranking each state’s progress has delivered a damning assessment of reforms following the national cabinet’s 2023 Better Deal for Renters, which promised to hold landlords to genuine reasonable grounds for eviction, limiting rent hikes to once a year, and minimum housing standards.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/rent-crisis-eviction-loophole…
# Australia, Eviction.WA rental protections second-worst in nation, National Shelter report finds
Cason Ho ABC (No paywall)The WA government says landlords will continue to be allowed to evict tenants for no reason, ruling out the possibility of bringing the state in line with other jurisdictions in outlawing the practice. WA and the NT are the only places in Australia where no grounds evictions are legal, and a new report has found the state has the second-worst protections for renters in the nation.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-23/wa-rental-protections-sec…
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Rent.Residents say former Moe Hospital could become public housing
Jack Colantuono ABC (No paywall)The former Moe Hospital, perched on a hill in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, has sat empty and derelict for almost 30 years. The site in Ollerton Avenue, Newborough, became a target of vandals after its closure in 1998. Now, with the hospital site listed for sale, Moe residents want it redeveloped into much-needed public housing. Jeff Kennett's Liberal government closed the Moe and Traralgon public hospitals in the early 1990s, replacing them with a larger hospital named Latrobe Regional Health midway between the two towns.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-15/moe-hospital-newborough-d…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Repairs.If we’re focused on fairness, it’s not the rich we should be worrying about
Millie Muroi The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)When we talk about inequality, we tend to focus on income. After all, if some people are raking in thousands of dollars a week while others get by on just a few hundred dollars, that would seem to be a key contributor to inequality. Income inequality is certainly an issue, with the top one-fifth of Australian households taking home two-fifths of the country’s income. But it’s actually our distribution of wealth that’s the biggest driver of inequality between the “haves” and the “have-nots”. It’s also, crucially, holding us all back from economic growth.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/if-we-re-focused-on-…
# Australia, .In Paris it’s normal to raise a family in a three-bedroom apartment. Why aren’t we building more in Australia?
Jonathan Barrett The Guardian (No paywall)When Sydney couple Matthew Henderson and Jacqui Nissim realised their family had outgrown their two-bedroom apartment, they got creative. Given the unaffordable prices of a standalone house in Randwick, a vibrant suburb in the city’s east, they opted to renovate a sunroom. “We had to take a creative approach and create a flexible third bedroom,” Henderson says. “Otherwise we would need to move away from here, and we’d be moving further away from jobs, further away from work and schools.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/sep/13/in-paris-…
# Australia, .Housing makes otherwise smart people lose their grip on reality – here’s some ballast
Tim Williams The Fifth Estate (No paywall)In just one of many misdirects that abound in the housing debate, Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ budget papers wrongly suggested Australia was a bottom feeder in terms of global housing delivery, when in per capita terms it’s actually towards the top of the global table and twice as productive as the UK. But the corruption of the facts gets worse. Part of the problem with the Australian housing debate – best understood as a veritable “dialogue of the deaf” – is that it is too Australian.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/housing-makes-oth…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, .