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
Capital gains tax discount ‘overwhelmingly’ benefits investors in Australia’s richest electorates, analysis shows
Patrick Commins The Guardian (No paywall)Investors who live in the wealthy electorate of Wentworth in Sydney’s eastern suburbs claimed about $1.8bn from the 50% capital gains tax discount, according to new research. It reveals how a handful of rich enclaves in Australia’s two biggest cities account for a fifth of the annual benefit from the tax break. The Australian Council of Social Services is lobbying for a halving of the CGT discount and has used analysis of Australian Taxation Office data from 2022-23 to highlight how the benefits “flow overwhelmingly to a small number of high-income, inner-city electorates in the eastern states”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/12/capital-g…
# Must read Australia, .Waterfront homes to be demolished for Mooloolah River Interchange
Josh Dye ABC (No paywall)Dozens of families are being evicted as the Queensland government prepares to bulldoze 52 prized waterfront homes for a major road project on the Sunshine Coast. A massive upgrade to the Mooloolah River Interchange has been proposed for decades to alleviate a bottleneck on the key arterial road. The interchange is a congested spaghetti junction connecting the busy Sunshine Motorway and Nicklin Way, as well as several local streets. After years of delays and setbacks, the almost $1 billion project is finally being built as the state government rushes to prepare the fast-growing region for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-17/residents-face-eviction-m…
# Australia, Eviction.To Solve the Housing Affordability Crisis, Communities Must Confront Inequality
Chris Schildt Shelter Force (No paywall)Community development practitioners have long understood that our work is rooted in both economic and housing justice, recognizing that a good job and economic stability go hand in hand with safe, affordable, and dignified housing. A new working paper published by the London School of Economics and Political Science, authored by urban planners Maximilian Buchholz, Tom Kemeny, Gregory Randolph, and Michael Storper, affirms that wages and housing affordability are linked. The authors find that rising incomes among the 40 percent of the population with college degrees provide a much stronger explanation for rising housing prices than regulations constraining supply.
https://shelterforce.org/2026/03/04/to-solve-the-housing-afforda…
# Australia, .Labor appears set to reform capital gains tax discount after parliamentary inquiry findings
Tom McIlroy The Guardian (No paywall)Labor has given one of its strongest signals yet the capital gains tax discount will be reworked in the May budget, with a parliamentary inquiry finding the Howard-era settings are helping fuel intergenerational inequality in Australia’s housing market. A Greens-led parliamentary inquiry said the 50% discount “skewed the ownership of housing away from owner-occupiers and towards investors”. “The benefits of the capital gains tax discount are also unequally distributed, with implications for income and wealth inequality and intergenerational inequality,” the report released on Tuesday found.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/17/labor-app…
# Hot topic Australia, .Housing Australia: Why we need fair rental policies
Tone Wheeler Architecture and Design (No paywall)We have spent decades treating renting as a waiting room for ownership. Policy followed the comfortable myth that everyone would eventually move on to a mortgage. Very little effort went into making renting secure, stable or fair because it didn't seem necessary. Everyone was just passing through. That assumption has collapsed. For many, renting is no longer a phase but a condition, stretching across working lives and child-rearing years. Renting has expanded not because it was planned, but because ownership has retreated. The divide between owners and purchasers has become a gulf.
https://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/editorial/opinion/housi…
# Australia, Rent.Where do the millions in rental bond interest go?
Andy Kollmorgen CHOICE (No paywall)When you pay a rental bond it’s a substantial outlay that generally comes out to four weeks’ rent, so it’s natural to worry about whether you’ll eventually get your money back. Landlords have been known to lay claim to some or all of it at the end of a rental tenancy, sometimes on flimsy grounds. Most bonds are returned in full, but only technically speaking. For instance, if you receive the same $3200 back that you put in up front, you’re actually getting back less due to inflation. Bond reimbursements aren’t tied to the consumer price index, nor do they include the interest your money would have earned over time.
https://www.choice.com.au/money/property/renting/articles/where-…
# Hot topic Australia, Bond.New laws for pets in rentals take effect in Tasmania, making it easier to keep an animal
Josh Duggan ABC (No paywall)Lanna has a pretty good idea why she's previously struggled to find a rental house. She believes the reason has four legs and a fluffy coat — her Border Collie, Cruze. "On paper, I had everything else going for me — I had a good solid work history, I had good finances behind me, I had no prior landlord saying that I was a terrible tenant," she said. "The only thing that was held against me was the fact that I had a dog."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-20/tas-pet-rental-law-change…
# Hot topic, New policy announcement Australia, Pets.Voluntary home energy ratings won’t drive retrofits for all, but these solutions will
Nicola Willand, Ralph Horne, Bhavna Middle and Sarah Robertson The Fifth Estate (No paywall)The Australian government recently announced that the energy rating scheme for new homes will be extended to existing homes in mid-2026 in a voluntary capacity, suggesting that this will “inform renters and home buyers upfront about the energy efficiency of a home and how much it will cost to run” and drive low carbon home improvements that cut energy emissions and costs. Extending home energy ratings to dwellings built before the introduction of the Nationwide Home Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) in 2005 is an important step towards raising public awareness of energy efficiency and how the build quality of a dwelling’s envelope and its fixed appliances contribute to energy bills and thermal comfort in the home.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/spinifex/voluntary-home-en…
# Australia, Utilities water energy internet.