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
Flood-affected Ingham pleas for help as housing crisis worsens
Georgia Loney ABC (No paywall)Karen Thomas is packing up precious memories and the few belongings she has left as she prepares to leave her beloved community of Ingham. Ms Thomas hasn't been able to find any permanent housing since floods inundated her rental property in February. Community advocates say she's not alone. Residents in the flood-stricken Queensland town say they are being forced to leave due to a worsening housing crisis. Ms Thomas has not only lost her home in Ingham, she has lost her community. The floods came just after her daughter, Jody Davies, died from suicide in September.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-14/ingham-flood-victims-home…
# Must read Australia, Disasters, Rent, Repairs.Busselton bans new unhosted short-stay accommodation in residential areas
Stan Shaw and Chela Williams ABC (No paywall)Unhosted holiday homes will no longer be permitted in certain parts of a popular tourist destination in the south-west of Western Australia. The City of Busselton council has approved changes to its short-term accommodation policy. City planners said the policy change was to ensure there was enough permanent housing left for the community. The policy will not affect holiday homes with existing approvals. The council's director of community planning Gary Barbour said holiday homes will not be permitted in residential and future growth areas.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-12/busselton-bans-new-short-…
# Hot topic Australia, .WA Planning Commission approves Busselton social housing, despite opposition
Pip Waller ABC (No paywall)WA's Planning Commission has approved a high-density social housing development in the state's South West despite a fierce backlash by residents. The three-and-four-storey apartment block will be built on an unused site on Brown Street in Busselton, 223 kilometres south of Perth, by developer Housing Choices Western Australia. It will feature 30 apartments, 16 of which will be social housing units and 14 affordable housing. With the median house price climbing to $780,000 and rents now upwards of $800 per week, housing has become a critical issue in the community.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-06/anger-as-brown-street-soc…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing.Australia’s rental crisis at home also cost its reputation abroad
Sohail Akhtar Lowy Institute (No paywall)Enthusiastic, full of hope, with postgraduate degrees, international work experience, and legal working rights, I arrived in Melbourne about six months ago. But when it came to renting a home, a very basic amenity, none of that mattered. Landlords didn’t care for my qualifications or potential. They wanted an Australian credit history, a stable job and sometimes even months of rent in advance. Without these, I was a risk, not a tenant. Australia rightly promotes itself globally as one of the world’s most beautiful and liveable countries, attracting thousands of students, workers, and skilled migrants every year.
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/australia-s-rental…
# Australia, Discrimination, Rent, Starting a tenancy.Queensland Government urged to fix housing policy that threatens safety of at-risk women
Tabitha Lean, Debbie Kilroy and Brig H Croakey Media (No paywall)Women who are experiencing extreme disadvantage, including violence, poverty and housing insecurity, are at unfair risk from a new Queensland Government housing policy, according to the authors below. Tabitha Lean and Debbie Kilroy OAM, from the National Network of Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, and Brig H, who wishes to remain anonymous, call for the removal of punitive elements of the Government’s Immediate Housing Response (IHR). The IHR provides short-term and temporary refuge accommodation assistance to people experiencing, or at imminent risk of homelessness, and is delivered by government funded Specialist Homelessness Services. This is the first in a two-part series on Queensland Government housing policies.
https://www.croakey.org/queensland-government-urged-to-fix-housi…
# Australia, Rent.Is regulation really to blame for the housing affordability crisis?
Nicole Gurran and Peter Phibbs The Conversation (No paywall)The Albanese government has a new mantra to describe the housing crisis, which is showing no signs of abating: homes have simply become “too hard to build” in Australia. The prime minister and senior ministers are taking aim at what they are calling a “thicket” of red tape and regulation, which is making it “uneconomic” to build affordable housing. Undoubtedly, the great Australian dream is further out of reach, with average house prices now above A$1 million for the first time. But will a war on excessive regulation be enough to address the affordability barriers keeping many people out of the market? Or does the answer lie in systemic change, including tax reform?
https://theconversation.com/is-regulation-really-to-blame-for-th…
# Hot topic Australia, .Queensland public housing tenants to be evicted after three warnings for serious behaviour in a year
Claudia Williams ABC (No paywall)Public housing tenants in Queensland who are issued three warnings for serious behaviour in a year could be evicted under a new government policy. The new policy, which will come into effect in July, will also see tenants who are evicted for committing illegal offences banned from reapplying for two years. Housing advocates have expressed disappointment that they were not consulted by the government, and hold concerns it could lead to the most vulnerable in the community becoming homeless.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-14/queensland-public-housing…
# Hot topic Australia, Eviction, Public and community housing.Why Australian homes are so cold — and what you can do about it
Jessica Bahr SBS (No paywall)Winter has arrived in Australia, and you may have noticed it feels just as cold — or even colder —inside your home compared with outside. Australia is typically considered a warm country, and winter temperatures do not reach the lows recorded in many other parts of the world. But inside many homes, it's a different story. If you live in Australia and you're feeling the cold, you're not alone. Content creators from colder places, such as Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, have taken to social media to question why Australian houses are so cold compared to those overseas.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/why-australian-homes-are-so-…
# Australia, .