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
Under Pressure Everybody’s Home Sector Survey
Everybody's Home (No paywall)Australia is in the midst of an escalating housing crisis that is pushing more people into financial hardship, housing insecurity, and homelessness. Between rents that are at historic highs, cost of living pressures, and a massive shortfall in social housing, frontline services are being stretched to breaking point. Community organisations, homelessness services, and social welfare providers are experiencing unprecedented demand as more Australians struggle to find and maintain stable housing.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oOlULCBgyKrtBTatxd25yo66UBGqUQb…
# Hot topic, Research alert Australia, Public and community housing.From empty homes to dead possums, tenants reveal laundry list of problems in Victoria’s community housing
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)One of Victoria’s largest community housing providers has been accused of leaving apartments empty for more than a year and failing to address maintenance issues raised by tenants, including broken windows, missing floorboards and dead possums left to rot. The claims come as housing advocates warn of widespread problems with community housing, including poor standards and a lack of transparency. In August 2023 the social housing provider HousingFirst took over the stewardship of Glenloch Homes, which provides independent living for 163 aged pensioners across six sites in the south of Melbourne.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/09/from-empt…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Repairs.Social housing tenants' class action against ACT government gets green light
Elizabeth Byrne ABC (No paywall)A group of Canberra's social housing tenants are set to get their day in the Federal Court, with the way cleared for a class action against the ACT government over a plan to move them from their homes. Under the ACT government's Growth and Renewal program, nearly 600 social housing homes were slated to be redeveloped, with their tenants moved to new public housing. The scheme, developed in 2019, was eventually abandoned, but a group of residents pursued the case in the Federal Court, suing the government for breach of contract and unconscionable conduct.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-12/class-action-by-social-ho…
# Must read Australia, Public and community housing.Tasmanian government wins in court after Sydney couple claimed ownership over house 'erroneously' transferred to them
Adam Holmes ABC (No paywall)In 2002, Tasmania's Education Department decided to sell a block of flats that it was using to house teachers in the rural town of Rosebery. It sits across the road from the Rosebery District School, but was deemed surplus to requirements. The department also owned a small house next to the flats, separated by a wooden fence. In court documents, the state government argues that it didn't intend to sell or transfer the house. Instead, in its submission in court, it says the Office of the Surveyor-General carried out a tabletop survey that included the flats and house on the same land title — seemingly unbeknownst to anyone at the time. The land was then sold — and the house might have been included with the flats.
# Hot topic Australia, .Economists urge major parties to raise Rent Assistance, as older Australians languish in poverty
Lucy Barbour and Jeremy Story Carter ABC (No paywall)Lyn's first football match was Footscray Bulldogs icon Ted Whitten's last. Her home, deep in a Melbourne industrial pocket where she has rented for 12 years, remains a shrine to her beloved Bulldogs. She is, as Whitten was, an embodiment of the working-class western suburbs. Lyn now faces the very real threat of having to pack up her Bulldogs memorabilia and leave, with nowhere else to go.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-10/older-women-housing-distr…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Most retirees who rent live in poverty. Here’s how boosting rent assistance could help lift them out of i
Brendan Coates, Joey Moloney & Matthew Bowes The Conversation (No paywall)Most Australians can look forward to a comfortable retirement. More than three in four retirees own their own home, most report feeling comfortable financially, and few suffer financial stress. But our new Grattan Institute report paints a sobering picture for one group: retirees who rent in the private market. Two-thirds of this group live in poverty, including more than three in four single women who live alone.
https://theconversation.com/most-retirees-who-rent-live-in-pover…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Australia's housing crisis is driven by lip-service, hypocrisy and an investment culture
Alan Kohler ABC (No paywall)House prices never fall very much in Australia. Even in the recessions of 1982 and 1991 they only fell 6.2 per cent, and in the past 50 years the national median price has only fallen more than 10 per cent once — 10.2 per cent after the APRA crackdown on lending to property investors in 2017, which says a lot. In total, there have been eight housing downturns since 1980 averaging 6.7 per cent, including the current one. Housing is the market that never crashes, it only gently subsides. No wonder it's beloved as an investment asset.
https://amp-abc-net-au.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.abc.net.au/art…
# Video Australia, .NSW Government’s new Rental Taskforce to crack down on bad landlords, real estate agents
Elizabeth Pike Daily Telegraph (Soft Paywall)Renters still face being evicted for no reason, strict limits on pets, and huge upfront bond payments, with the Minns government yet to bring “long overdue” changes into effect. While rental reforms which passed parliament last year are still not in place, the Minns government has now established an $8.4 million taskforce to crack down on dodgy real estate agents and landlords. Fair Trading Minister Anoulack Chanthivong said inspection, audit and compliance blitzes will be carried out across the state in the coming months to hold rogue industry actors accountable.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/nsw-governments-new-r…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media, Legal significance Australia, .