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
Kimberley leaders sceptical of WA government, opposition housing focus amid chronic overcrowding
Rosanne Maloney ABC (No paywall)Nathan McIvor says he feels no sense of relief when the West Australian government announces more money for social and affordable housing because it rarely helps remote communities in the state's north. When the WA government announced its re-election pitch this week, more social and affordable housing was front and centre. But Mr McIvor, chief executive of Djarindjin Aboriginal Corporation, said the community, 200 kilometres north of Broome, was not eligible and had not had new homes for decades. Instead, as the Djarindjin population grows, the community has been dealing with severe overcrowding in almost every household.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-07/wa-election-housing-polic…
# Australia, Aboriginal renters, Rent.‘Pathetic’: Landlord’s wild response to renter after clothesline breaks
news.com.au (No paywall)A landlord has been slammed online over their “pathetic” response to a tenant’s broken clothesline. The tenant had submitted a maintenance request after discovering their clothesline had come crashing down in the rain while their clothes were still hanging. Photos shared on Reddit show the clothesline - which was anchored to the back fence of the property - broken in half after seemingly snapping from one of the frames. Photos also show parts of the line, including a bolt, appeared aged and discoloured. However, when the tenant submitted a request to have the clotheslines repaired, they were told it was their responsibility to fix the line, as the owner believed the problem lay with the weight of the wet clothes.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/pathetic-lan…
# Must read Australia, Rent, Repairs.Regional Queensland rents in December 2024 quarter rise to Brisbane prices
Nicholas Finch news.com.au (No paywall)Rental prices in regional Queensland have skyrocketed to the same level as in Brisbane, with the median advertised rate in the city and the bush now $630. Weekly rents in Brisbane rose five per cent in the year to December while regional Queensland prices spiked 8.6 per cent, making it the most expensive regional area in the country to rent. Real estate analyst REA Group’s latest Group Market Insight reveals Brisbane was one of only two capital cities that had a rise in rental prices over the final quarter of 2024.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/regional-queensland-…
# Australia, Rent.Sustainable developer Nightingale racks up almost $500,000 in debt
Sarah Danckert The Age (Paywall)Not-for-profit development group Nightingale has called in a restructuring expert to help it broker a cents-in-the-dollar deal for its creditors, including the Tax Office, as it tries to recover from a mass exodus from its board in the second half of last year. Nightingale, which is well known for its aim to revolutionise the apartment industry by creating sustainable, small-footprint homes, called in restructuring firm Rodgers Reidy in October to help it work through its business problems. The restructure is not expected to have any impact on the group’s developments already under construction, which include projects in Coburg and Brunswick.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/sustainable-develope…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Rent.‘It’s our house, but it’s their home’: tenants and landlords discuss renters’ rights bill
Jem Bartholomew The Guardian (No paywall)When Nicola Jalland, 62, was served with a section 21 no-fault eviction in March 2022 – which means a landlord can oust a tenant for no reason – she was upset to leave the property she had lived in for 11 years. She had made the home a sanctuary, with a garden full of flowers. But when Jalland got her second no-fault eviction in two years in November 2023, she was angry. “It was an incredible feeling of imbalance of power,” she says. “The second time it happened, I literally felt worthless.” Jalland says she was forced to move in with her 82-year-old mother after the second eviction while waiting for a council property, saying she slept on cushions on the floor. “I was nothing to them [her landlords], I was monetary value,” she says.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jan/14/tenants-landlords-…
# Must read International, Eviction.Where could you really afford to live? Sydney’s housing crisis mapped
Nick Newling, Cindy Yin and Penry Buckley The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Twin sisters Amy and Jordan Whalland, 22, live in what they describe as a “house of five adults”. Priced out of a rental market that stops them living with friends closer to university, the pair live at home with their parents and their younger sister. “I had an expectation of what being a uni student would feel like based on movies and books that I’ve read, [but] it feels like a continuation of high school because everyone stays at home,” Amy says. If the twins’ parents were buying today, they would be living 40 kilometres west, and if the sisters were purchasing, they would be looking outside of Sydney.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/where-could-you-really-affor…
# Hot topic NSW, .Sydney’s housing catastrophe is just around the corner. Gen Z knows how to fix it
Daniel Lo Surdo, Penry Buckley, Cindy Yin, Nick Newling, Kayla Olaya and Frances Howe The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)Sydney needs an immediate housing investment akin to the post-WWII construction boom to stop the housing crisis turning into a catastrophe, a panel of the city’s future leaders has said. The panel of six young experts, convened by the Herald, agreed that Sydney’s housing crisis is fixable, but that governments have only a short window to stop a mass exodus of young workers as housing prices balloon across the city. Among the ideas suggested by the panel was a return to policies under which there was an explosion of housing growth following the return of soldiers and an influx of migrants in the mid-20th century.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/sydney-s-housing-catastrophe…
# Hot topic NSW, .The U-turn on Sydney’s housing crisis no one saw coming
Alexandra Smith The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)As far as new year’s resolutions went, no one saw this coming. Could it be that in 2025, an opposition party in NSW takes the unprecedented step of vowing to throw political sparring and point-scoring out the window and work with the government of the day to solve a seemingly impenetrable problem? In the very state that views politics as a blood sport? We all make January 1 resolutions with the best intentions and a keenness to right the wrongs of the past year. Too much wine? Quit alcohol. Too much snacking? Cut out carbs. Save more, spend less. And on it goes. Political parties and their leaders, however, are much less likely to commit to unachievable undertakings, lest they be held to account.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/the-u-turn-on-sydney-s-housi…
# Hot topic NSW, .