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
‘No pets, no guests, no music’ – and now ‘no WFH’: why house-share ads are getting ever stricter
Kimi Chaddah The Guardian (No paywall)Last week, I came across a flurry of ads on the house-share site SpareRoom sounding less like they were for cosy, inviting living arrangements than for boarding schools. “Please note – no surprise guests, no music and no use of the living room because it doubles as a bedroom,” wrote one “current flatmate”. Reading it, I wondered if there would be a curfew too.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/sep/06/house-shar…
# Hot topic International, Rent.What happened to Ireland’s plan to make sure renters’ deposits were protected?
The Journal (No paywall)BACK IN 2015, the then-government introduced a law requiring landlords to store deposits with the Residential Tenancies Board – but the measure was never implemented. As part of the 2015 Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act, the scheme aimed to safeguard renters’ deposits and resolve disputes. Similar schemes have worked successfully in other countries, and the Irish law looked set to follow suit. Since then, however, disputes over deposits have become more common, not less. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) logged over 1,800 deposit-related requests in 2024 — a 65% increase on the 2021 figure.
https://www.thejournal.ie/renter-deposit-scheme-where-is-it-6808…
# International, Rent.‘No more empty homes while people are homeless’: the squatters being evicted from the northern rivers’ ‘buyback’ homes
Penry Buckley The Guardian (No paywall)One August morning, Chels Hood Withey woke to sheriffs banging on the door. The housing advocate had been squatting in an empty house in Mullumbimby, in Byron shire, after they became homeless in January. But the house was a “buyback”, one of hundreds purchased from their owners by the New South Wales government’s Reconstruction Authority (RA) as part of a scheme to improve the flood resilience of areas following the state’s devastating floods in 2022. Many people have moved into the homes, which are due for demolition, relocation or recycling, because of what they say is a lack of affordable housing in the region.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/06/northen-rive…
# Must read NSW, Disasters.Domestic violence victim-survivors to get stronger rental protections
NSW Government (No paywall)Victim-survivors of domestic violence will soon have greater power to leave unsafe homes and protect their privacy under new rental reforms introduced by the Minns Labor Government in NSW Parliament today. The Residential Tenancies Amendment (Domestic Violence Reform) Bill 2025 introduces changes to the process for leaving a tenancy due to domestic violence to better support victim-survivors. The reforms will: Make it easier for victim-survivors to leave a tenancy; Strengthen privacy and security protections; Improve a ban on listing victims on residential tenancy databases; Make it clear victim-survivors are not liable for property damage caused by a perpetrator; Support victim-survivors to recover their share of the rental bond.
https://dcj.nsw.gov.au/news-and-media/media-releases/2025/domest…
# Must read NSW, Domestic violence.Sydney suburbs with the most amenities – but without one type of home
Alice Uribe The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Some of Sydney highest-amenity neighbourhoods in the east and harbourside are lagging other parts of the city in the provision of social housing, new research shows. Across the country, many well-located suburbs have scant social housing. For NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland, 70 per cent or more of high-amenity locations have less than 5 per cent social housing, according to new research which said this indicated “a strong opportunity to increase provision in these locations.”
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/sydney-suburbs-with-the-mos…
# NSW, .Law to help renters escape domestic violence lease trap
Jack Gramenz Yahoo News (No paywall)Renters will face fewer hurdles to flee abusive relationships under tenancy changes to help people in dangerous living situations. NSW is expanding its existing provisions for leases to be terminated due to domestic violence, ensuring more "approved people" can declare a tenant is experiencing violence. Tenants will be able to use a court order or tribunal ruling to protect themselves when an abuser is excluded from a rental property by bail conditions, such as by changing the locks without landlord approval.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/tenancy-changes-lock-abusers-help-2241…
# Hot topic NSW, Domestic violence.There's still time to negotiate fixed-method site-fee increases
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)If you are a home owner with non-compliant fixed-method site fee increases, you can still act on your rights. But be quick! Who does this apply to? Home owners who have a site agreement that was: entered into before 25 September 2024, and has a built-in fixed method of site fee increase, and that method doesn’t comply with the amended sections 65 and 66 of the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013. The Act has given home owners in this situation 12 months – until 24 September 2025 – to negotiate with their operators about how site fees will be increased under the site agreement.
https://www.tenants.org.au/thenoticeboard/news/theres-still-time…
# Hot topic NSW, Land lease communities.‘I like old things’: Why Woollahra residents are digging in for a legal fight over housing
Jessica McSweeney The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The federal Liberal Party’s loudest pro-housing voice says every apartment not built in Sydney harms the younger generation, as Liberal councillors in his own backyard consider a legal challenge against plans for 10,000 new homes in Woollahra and Edgecliff. Senator Andrew Bragg, who lives in the eastern suburbs, said the NSW government needs to consult the community on plans for major rezoning around the yet-to-be-built Woollahra train station and Edgecliff, but ultimately the Liberals were open to the proposal that has become the latest flashpoint in the city’s housing debate.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/i-like-old-things-why-woolla…
# NSW, .