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
If you live in public housing, what rights do you have to stay in your home?
Bill Swannie The Conversation (No paywall)Around 544,000 people live in public housing in Australia. And there’s huge demand for more: 169,000 households are waiting for public housing, up almost 10% from a decade earlier. But what happens when a state government decides to move public housing tenants? Do tenants have any legal rights to stay? Several court cases – including a new High Court appeal for Melbourne tenants, and an unexpected win for three Canberra tenants – show how some people are challenging their relocation when laws aren’t properly followed.
https://theconversation.com/if-you-live-in-public-housing-what-r…
# Australia, Public and community housing.Cost-of-living crisis sees more young women neglecting health and basic needs, report finds
Jordan Bissell ABC (No paywall)Every week, 23-year-old Ruby Neisler begins her ritual — trawling for supermarket bargains. She starts at Tribe of Judah, a church-backed discount supermarket in Logan, south of Brisbane, which sells heavily reduced grocery items — many of them end-of-life pantry staples. Ms Neisler says when shopping at the major supermarkets she is limited to buying what is on special, with full priced items out of reach after covering the cost of her rent.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-13/young-women-cost-of-livin…
# Australia, .55,000 extra social housing homes are being built. But a new study shows that boom still falls short
Hal Pawson The Conversation (No paywall)Thanks to an unprecedented lift in public funding in the 2020s, an extra 55,000 new, good quality homes around Australia will be available to people on the lowest incomes by 2030. That’s almost triple the increase of 20,000 homes in the previous decade. Residents in these modern “social” homes will generally pay only 25% of their income in rent. Social housing refers to government-subsidised homes, with below market rents.
https://theconversation.com/55-000-extra-social-housing-homes-ar…
# Australia, Public and community housing.Building 1.2m homes will barely put a dent in Australia’s housing affordability, one expert says. Here’s why
Patrick Commins The Guardian (No paywall)Is building more homes the answer to Australia’s housing crisis? No, it’s not. Not even close. In fact, delivering an unrealistically massive overbuild of homes over the next two decades would barely put a dent in housing affordability, according to Christian Nygaard, a professor of housing economics at the UNSW’s City Futures Research Centre. The Albanese government’s housing accord has the “aspirational” target of delivering 1.2m homes over the five years to mid-2029. Despite best efforts at federal and state level, nobody thinks we will get there.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/18/building-…
# Must read Australia, .Regional housing market booms, outpacing capital cities
Michael West Media (No paywall)With the prospect of paying at least $1 million for a home in many of Australia’s capital cities, buyers are once again looking to escape to the country. The regional property market surged in the three months to January, outpacing the capitals, according to figures from data firm Cotality released on Wednesday. Dwelling values rose 3.2 per cent for the quarter in regional areas, compared to 2.1 per cent in the combined capitals. Competitive market conditions in the cities, poor housing affordability and a boost in internal migration sent buyers packing for the country long after COVID-19 lockdowns sparked the initial migration trend.
https://michaelwest.com.au/regional-housing-market-booms-outpaci…
# Australia, .Massachusetts Weighs Return of Rent Control, Dividing Top Democrats
Jared Mitovich The Wall Street Journal (Paywall)BOSTON—A fight is heating up in Massachusetts over what could become one of the nation’s strictest rent-control measures. A group of housing advocates and labor unions want to stop landlords from raising rents by more than the states annual rte of inflation - but no higher than 5% a year.
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/massachusetts-weighs-return-of-r…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Affordable housing so good that architects want to live there too
Julie Power The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Dan Szwaj is greeted with tears of joy. He is not a technician finally arriving to reconnect the internet, or a plumber coming to unblock the loo. He is the architect of the Boronia apartments in the Danks Street precinct in Waterloo, who took the “stigma out” of affordable housing for a new tenant, 57-year-old Carrie-Anne Huddleston. After losing a well-paid corporate job a few years ago, Huddleston’s life unravelled. She was priced out of her home when she was hit with a $600 a month hike in rent. Like many older single women without a partner with an income, she stayed with friends and couch-surfed, initially reluctant to try affordable housing because she had grown up in public housing in Woolloomooloo.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/affordable-housing-so-good-t…
# Australia, .Melbourne rent relief arrives as double bonds scrapped
Beat (No paywall)Melbourne rent bonds can be transferred between properties from 2026, removing the need to pay double. Melbourne rent pressures will ease with portable rental bonds launching next year, allowing eligible renters to transfer existing bonds directly to new properties. Victorian government’s new Portable Rental Bonds scheme passed parliament, removing the financial burden of paying a second bond before the first one is refunded.
https://beat.com.au/melbourne-rent-relief-arrives-as-double-bond…
# Australia, Bond.