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
Growing divide between homeowners and renters in Australia
7 News (No paywall)Renters in Australia are facing increasing challenges, including long wait times for urgent repairs, mould, and structural defects in rental properties. Landlords are often slow to address these issues, and renters are hesitant to raise concerns due to fears of eviction or rent increases.
# Video Australia, Eviction, Rent, Repairs.Banned NDIS provider Sanjay Parasher tried to evict sick widow over $40k dispute
Julie Cross Daily Telegraph (Paywall)A flashy millionaire who has been banned from the NDIS once threatened to evict a disabled widow unless she paid him $40,000 after authorities froze taxpayer-funded payments to him while they investigated invoices from his company. Eventually some of the public money was released but a number of invoices were refused because the NDIS payment integrity team found them to be “non-compliant”. High-flying podiatrist Sanjay Parasher and his companies – the Australian Health Company and the Foot Specialist Australia – were recently banned from treating NDIS participants for three years.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/health/guides/ndis/banned-ndis…
# Australia, Eviction.Man at centre of NDIS property scheme accused of lavish spending despite having assets frozen by Federal Court
Jessica Longbottom, Ben Schneiders, Lesley Robertson and Dylan Welch ABC (No paywall)The Gold Coast businessman accused of gambling tens of millions of dollars earmarked to build homes for the country's most disabled has allegedly continued to spend lavishly despite the Federal Court freezing his assets. David McWilliams is the owner of the ALAMMC group of companies, which were marketed to investors as building accommodation for people with profound disabilities under the NDIS. However, after raising more than $92 million from hundreds of investors to build developments across the country, ASIC alleges Mr McWilliams spent much of it on things including gambling, luxury cars and a Fijian resort development.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-26/david-mcwilliams-alammc-s…
# Hot topic Australia, .The modest type of housing where rents have soared
Elizabeth Redman The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)Asking rents have soared even for the most modest properties in recent years, putting pressure on tenants in a cost-of-living crisis. Rents for one-bedroom apartments were relatively stable in the years leading up to the pandemic as a wave of new apartment construction kept a lid on how much landlords could charge, but they have jumped since. Landlords ask $675 a week in rent for the median one-bedroom unit in Sydney, as of June – up from $470 a decade earlier, Domain figures show.
https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-modest-type-of-housing-…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.There is no such thing as non-market housing
Adam Mongrain Medium (No paywall)Last June, my employer, Vivre en Ville, hosted its annual symposium in Montreal. Since this year’s theme was efficient land use, of course we had a panel about housing and how badly designed or badly implemented (or evidently, badly intended) planning policies lead to sprawl and land overconsumption. Our panelists were the great Carolyn Whitzman and Lisa Helps, in a discussion with the mighty Mary Rowe. At the guest speaker dinner the night before, I had the opportunity to chat a bit with Carolyn and told her I was mulling something over. “I want to make a case against the word non-market”, I told her. “It’s the wrong term and we have to stop using it.”
https://medium.com/@AdamMongrain/there-is-no-such-thing-as-non-m…
# International, .Tenants in England spending ‘unaffordable’ 36% of income on rent, shows survey
Matthew Weaver The Guardian (No paywall)Renting homes in England is becoming increasing unaffordable, according to official figures that show tenants pay an average of 36.3% of their income on rent, a figure that rises to 41.6% in London. People earning a median salary spent 36.3% of their income on an average-priced rented home in England in 2024, up from 34.2% in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figures for the financial year show that the price of renting a home in England is moving further beyond a 30% rent to income threshold that the ONS considers to be affordable.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/aug/18/tenants-in-england…
# International, .Tighter rental rules 'huge imposition on tenants'
Andrew Turner BBC (No paywall)Tighter regulation of privately-rented housing would invade tenants' privacy through an increased number of inspections, a landlords' association has claimed. Great Yarmouth Borough Council (GYBC) is consulting on a selective licensing scheme, where landlords would need a licence for privately-rented properties in specific areas with poor housing conditions and high levels of deprivation. The authority said it wanted to ensure all tenants had a home that was "safe, warm and well-managed".
# International, Rent, Repairs.UK homelessness minister Rushanara Ali resigns in eviction and rent price hike row
Euro News (No paywall)Homeless charities and opposition politicians called for Rushanara Ali's resignation over how she handled rent increases on her London property. The UK's Under-Secretary for Homelessness and Rough Sleeping, Rushanara Ali, has resigned after a row erupted over claims she evicted tenants from a property she owned before increasing the rent. In a letter to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Ali said remaining in her role would be a "distraction from the ambitious work of this government."
https://www.euronews.com/2025/08/08/uk-homelessness-minister-rus…
# International, Eviction.