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
The New ‘Poor Door’: Amenity Fees Are Too High for Affordable Housing Tenants
Patrick Spatter City Limits (No paywall)Tenants who get affordable housing through the city’s lottery or a rental assistance voucher often can’t afford amenity fees in new mixed-income luxury buildings, creating what one described as a “two-tiered system” within New York City rentals. “How can I be loitering in my own home?” Joseph Jones, 61, is standing in the well-furnished lobby of his apartment building on Bruckner Boulevard in the South Bronx. The clock is ticking. According to a building policy, tenants can only spend 15 minutes at a time hanging out in the building’s lobby. Just downstairs in the basement is a lounge, game room, and gym where tenants are welcome to stay as long as they like. It just costs $250 a month.
https://citylimits.org/the-new-poor-door-amenity-fees-are-too-hi…
# International, Utilities water energy internet.Cold and expensive v hot, cheap and eco-friendly: the contrasting histories of home heating in the UK and Sweden
Aimee Ambrose and Jenny Palm The Conversation (No paywall)The new year in Sweden began with some record-breaking cold temperatures. Temperatures in the village of Kvikkjokk in the northern Swedish part of Lapland dropped to -43.6°C, the lowest recorded since records began in 1887. Yet for the majority of Swedish households, heating is not an issue. Those living in the multi-household apartment blocks that characterise Sweden’s towns and cities enjoy average temperatures of 22°C inside their homes, thanks to communal heating systems that keep room temperatures high and costs low. For many households, heating is charged at a flat rate and included in the rent they pay.
https://theconversation.com/cold-and-expensive-v-hot-cheap-and-e…
# History International, Utilities water energy internet.Developers will only bring us more car-dependent sprawl
Jon Reeds The Guardian (No paywall)It is disappointing to see the huge urban sprawl at Gilston, north of Harlow, described as rejecting “car‑centric models” (A new town for the 21st century?, 9 February). Big, ultra-low-density developments like this, far from rail-transit networks, are inevitably car-dependent, despite claims by their promoters. It takes more than building the primary schools necessitated by such schemes to get people out of their cars, especially as walks to school are extended by the very low densities secured by huge consumption of productive farmland.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/feb/17/developers-will-…
# International, .What the end of no‑pet clauses means for renters
Josh Elgin BBC (No paywall)When lockdown turned life upside down for Jordan Adams, one absence weighed on him most. Living alone in a ground‑floor flat in Sutton, south London, he found himself not only cut off from friends and family, but from his dog Jasmine. "Being a single man and living on your own in your 20s at that point was really difficult," Adams says. So when the chance came to look after his beloved family dog, he asked his landlord for permission. But a rejection came back almost immediately, with no explanation offered.
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Pets.Why Building Alone Won’t Solve the Housing Crisis
Ronda Kaysen The New York Times (Paywall)The United States has not built enough housing for years, and a consensus has coalesced around a simple solution — if communities simply built more homes, rents and home prices would come down. But a new report raises doubts about that narrative, finding that in cities that aggressively built housing in recent years, rents rose dramatically for low-income households and stabilized for wealthier ones. The new rental housing that was built was often luxury housing, with studios and one-bedrooms, units that targeted young, single professionals but were too small and too expensive for low-income households with children. New single-family homes for sale were larger than they were in the past, aimed at wealthier buyers, rather than cash-strapped, first-time home buyers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/realestate/affordable-housing…
# International, .Overseas landlords risk falling foul of rental reforms
Helen Gregory Landlord Zone (No paywall)Complying with the Renters’ Rights Act will be more difficult for landlords who live overseas, the capital’s watchdog has been told. Propertymark warns that 18% of rental homes in London are owned by overseas landlords who fully rely on letting agents to manage their tenancies but will be expected to join the new PRS Database and Landlord Ombudsman scheme – something a letting agent can’t do on their behalf. Agents who don’t voluntarily sign up to higher standards might not be aware of the new requirements or will not be sure of them due to conflicting guidance, it says.
https://www.landlordzone.co.uk/news/overseas-landlords-risk-fall…
# International, .Israel lobby sells stolen Palestinian land to Australian investors
Joshua Barnett and Stephanie Tran Michael West Media (No paywall)Hard-right Zionist lobby group, the Australian Jewish Association (AJA), is promoting an Israeli real estate scheme with its ‘partners’, Noam Homes and Selling Israel, selling land in the the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including the West Bank. There is no evidence from the marketing materials that the operators of the scheme have proper authorisation in Australia: either a licence to provide financial advice or a licence to sell property – let alone property deemed illegal under international law.
https://michaelwest.com.au/israel-lobby-sells-stolen-palestinian…
# Must read Australia, .Will the government finally deliver a housing policy that stops making a bad situation worse?
Greg Jericho The Guardian (No paywall)Excuse me while I let out a long sigh of frustration. Australia’s housing policy has for so very long been about making the problem worse by juicing up demand. This is undeniable. The evidence is long and clear. Whether it be the 50% capital gains tax discount John Howard introduced in 1999, the continuation of negative gearing, or the use of first home buyer grants, government policies have overwhelmingly ensured more people are bidding for houses at auctions.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2026/feb/12/gov…
# Australia, .