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
DOJ says companies schemed to keep rent high
Fox 9 (No paywall)The U.S. Department of Justice is accusing major property management companies of conspiring to keep rent prices high with anti-competitive practices. FOX 9's Mike Manzoni has the full story.
# Video International, Rent.Affordable rent scheme comes with 300 new homes
Rebekah Wilson BBC (No paywall)A total of 300 new homes will be built across Northern Ireland under a new rental scheme, the Department for Communities has said. The intermediate rent model will offer a below-market rate to help those on lower incomes who earn too much to qualify for social housing but are priced out of the private sector. The homes will be built by property company Maple & May and it is hoped the first tenants will be in place from late 2026.
# Hot topic International, Rent.How New Rent Control Laws Have Changed the Landscape
Liz Brumer-Smith U.S News (No paywall)High-demand, low-inventory housing markets like San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York City have used rent control laws for decades to help manage the market and prohibit landlords from excessively raising rents. While rent control laws are usually decided and implemented locally, landlords and tenants should be aware of significant changes in 2024 that expanded the scope of certain regulations. If you own or rent property in an area governed by rent control laws, here’s a look at important updates and how they have impacted the rental landscape.
https://realestate.usnews.com/real-estate/articles/how-new-rent-…
# Hot topic International, Rent.To achieve real growth, the NZ government needs to relax the rules around housing
James Graham The Conversation (No paywall)Prime Minister Christopher Luxon wants New Zealand to “go for growth”. But his plan, focused on reforming foreign investment, planning and competition laws, as well as boosting the tourism and mining sectors, is hampered by a fundamental reality of New Zealand’s economy: much of the country’s capital is tied up in unproductive (and expensive) housing. While this issue is not new, with New Zealand’s economy once described as “a housing market with bits tacked on”, the solution may lie in making housing more readily available through deregulation and policy reform.
https://theconversation.com/to-achieve-real-growth-the-nz-govern…
# International, Rent.Centuries-old leasehold system to be abolished in England and Wales
Kiran Stacey The Guardian (No paywall)The housing minister has promised to abolish the centuries-old leasehold system in England and Wales before the end of this parliament, as the government takes the next steps towards an outright ban on new leasehold developments. Matthew Pennycook said he was committed to ending the feudal-era system – which applies to 5m homes in England – after years of complaints from leaseholders about crippling service charges and crumbling buildings. With some leaseholders complaining about the slow pace of action by this government, ministers will on Monday lay out a series of proposals to make it easier for homeowners to jointly own the buildings they live in.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/mar/03/centuries-old-leas…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Residents and supporters unite to fight boarding house eviction
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)In a scenario that has played out too many times, a group of boarding house residents in Selwyn Street Paddington is being told to leave to make way for unaffordable housing. The group of 28 residents is being threatened with eviction so that 4 luxury apartments can be built. Neighbours in their community and supporters have mounted an admirable campaign to save the residents, and are also working to make sure they get housing if they are evicted. Homes NSW has promised to help. This weekend a group of the residents and supporters gathered in Whitlam Square in Darlinghurst to demand the NSW Government acquire the boarding homes and save these renters from eviction and displacement.
https://www.tenants.org.au/news/residents-and-supporters-unite-f…
# Must read NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Eviction, Rent.Wagga mother's desperate roadside plea for housing aid
Amy O'Halloran ABC (No paywall)Next to a busy roundabout in the New South Wales Riverina city of Wagga Wagga, a family has pitched their tent with a sign in a desperate plea for help. Pensioner Cathy McGrath says she can afford a rental but feels she is not being taken seriously by private agencies. "[Many] applications later, one reply, got nothing, and I've been through every housing commission and no one will help me," Ms McGrath said. "I'm defeated. To be honest, I'm really at my lowest. I don't know what to do." Ms McGrath has been sleeping rough in Wagga for more than a year with her partner, who is on unemployment benefits while he tries to find work, and her 16-year-old daughter Chloe.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-21/rental-market-tight-and-h…
# Must read NSW, .Pine Street paradise: Inside Lismore’s squatter central
Lexie Cartwright news.com.au (No paywall)It’s known as “squatter’s lane” – a row of homes less than 1km from its city’s CBD that have become a slice of paradise for up to 50 people living rent-free. More than 600 properties deemed unsafe following the devastating 2022 Lismore floods were purchased by the NSW Government via its Reconstruction Authority (RA) throughout 2023. Today, almost all of those houses across Greater Lismore are still dormant, boarded up and fenced off while they await demolition or relocation. It’s been an agonisingly slow rebuild for residents, a process Mayor Steve Krieg described as a “total cock up.” In the thick of it all is Pine Street, also dubbed “squatter’s lane” by Mr Krieg. The State Government bought 15 of the properties on the street, which are now occupied mostly by foreigners who have ignored two previous attempts to evict them.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/pine-street-parad…
# Must read NSW, Disasters, Eviction, Rent.