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
City of Moreton Bay changes definition of homelessness in local law
Kenji Sato ABC (No paywall)Maree Baumann spends her nights huddling in the back of her car with her tiny dog, but according to the City of Moreton Bay she is not a homeless camper. The Queensland council has changed its local law definitions meaning people experiencing homelessness sleeping in vans or with pets are no longer "persons experiencing homelessness camping". The council has vowed to end its "lenient" approach to homelessness and has spent the past few months evicting campers and threatening up to $8,000 in fines. However, the council insists that these are technically not evictions, they are technically not council fines and many of these people are technically not homeless campers.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-21/moreton-bay-council-chang…
# Hot topic Australia, .Australian rental crisis: Agent asks renters for ‘virtual tour’ of current home
Sarah Petty Herald Sun (No paywall)A Melbourne real estate agency has been slammed for asking tenants to provide “virtual tours” of their current homes when applying for new properties, which experts say could be viewed as a potential violation of privacy. Melbourne real estate agency DK Property Partners has asked a prospective tenant to provide a video walk-through of their current home as part of their tenancy application for a West Footscray rental. Rental advocate and Victorian Socialists’ senate candidate Jordan van den Lamb, known as Purple Pingers on social media, has slammed the agency for the surprising request.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/australian-rental-cri…
# Hot topic Australia, .Geraldton caravan park residents evicted amid housing crisis
Piper Duffy and Chris Lewis ABC (No paywall)A caravan park closure in regional Western Australia is forcing elderly people out of their homes as the housing crisis tightens its grip on families across the country. Frank Cooper and his wife Daphne have been long-term residents of Drummond Cove Holiday Park near Geraldton, 433 kilometres north of Perth, for 20 years. "It's nice and quiet, not too far from the shops, servo, it's just so peaceful," Mr Cooper said. But a letter delivered to their front door outlining a six-month eviction notice sent their plans of living in the park "forever" crumbling down.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-25/geraldton-caravan-park-re…
# Must read Australia, Eviction, Land lease communities.Barcelona counters the effects of over-tourism – Municipality buys apartment block to prevent eviction of tenants
Proto Thema (No paywall)The municipality of Barcelona will buy an apartment building known as “Casa Orsola” to prevent the eviction of many tenants living in it, including a teacher whose threatened eviction has become a symbol of Spain’s housing crisis and months of movements against hypertourism. Josep Torrent, 49, who has lived in the same apartment in this condo for more than 20 years, was among the tenants who were told their contracts would not be renewed after the investment firm Lioness Investments bought the Art Nouveau Casa Orsola building in 2020. The company planned to start letting the apartments filding in 2020. The company planned to start letting the apartments for short-term rentals to tourists, offered on platforms such as Airbnb.
https://en.protothema.gr/2025/02/07/barcelona-counters-the-effec…
# Hot topic International, Eviction.Rents in UK are rising at highest rate in decades. Will they keep going up?
Liam Geraghty The Big Issue (UK) (No paywall)Rents in the UK are now at the highest point on record, surging beyond wider inflation and leaving renters on low incomes struggling to keep up or find an affordable place to live. Average private rents in the UK increased by 8.7% in the 12 months up to January 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). That is slightly down on the 9% recorded up to December 2024. But, with UK inflation currently at 3% and wage growth at 5.9%, rents are outstripping both with renters feeling the pain of rising energy bills too. Analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), found rent inflation has been above 8% for the last 18 months.
https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/rents-in-the-uk-are-rising…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Housing crisis 'robbing children's childhoods'
Esme Kenney BBC (No paywall)Children are being "robbed of their childhoods" as people wait an average of 5.2 years for social housing in Oxford, a homelessness charity has said. Oxford City Council is fifth in the ranking of UK councils with the longest waiting times -more than two years above the national average, with 3,443 people on the waiting list. Crisis Skylight Oxford said it had about 20 new people registering for support each week. Linda Smith, cabinet member for housing and communities, said the authority was doing what it could to ease the housing crisis, with funding set out for 1,600 new council houses.
# Hot topic International, Public and community housing.The cannabis farm scandal: how a rogue lettings agency destroyed countless homes
Sirin Kale The Guardian (No paywall)When Hajaj Hajaj decided to rent out his house in south London in the summer of 2020, his daughter, Kinda Jackson, urged him to use a reputable lettings agent for peace of mind. Her father had enough on his plate. Hajaj, a 79-year-old retired garage owner, is the primary carer for his wife, who has Alzheimer’s disease. The income from the rental property in Lewisham is effectively Hajaj’s pension, which he uses to pay for her care. So, when a manager from Imperial Property Group contacted Hajaj about his Gumtree listing, Hajaj arranged to meet them. A sharp-suited British Asian man named Shan Miah arrived in a sports car. He was in his late 20s or early 30s, charming and confident. He boasted of his business interests in Dubai. “He was doing very well for himself,” Hajaj says.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/feb/20/the-cannabis-far…
# International, Eviction, Rent.Scammers listing fake properties for rent near areas impacted by LA wildfires
CBS News (No paywall)Lauren Pozen speaks with the Pasadena man who found his property listed for rent, despite not actually doing so. She finds that it's part of a bigger scheme that could be targeting victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/video/scammers-listing-fake-p…
# Video International, Disasters, Rent, Starting a tenancy.