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
Owners mulling legal action if Maui County’s short-term rental bill passes. Could it stand up in court?
Colleen Uechi Maui Now (No paywall)At about 70 condo complexes where short-term rentals could become illegal under a proposed bill before the Maui County Council, property owners have been watching, waiting and talking with their lawyers. “We’re waiting to see if it does pass, and if it does, along with our attorney, we’ll take a look at it,” said Cindy Bulger, president of the board at the 188-unit Hale Kamaole in Kīhei. “I can’t say that we’ve made any final decision. I think we really want to review our options before we make a decision on that.”
https://mauinow.com/2025/08/24/owners-mulling-legal-action-if-ma…
# International, .New data shows rental affordability reaches crisis point in Northern Rivers
NBN News (No paywall)New data shows rental affordability has reached a crisis point in the Northern Rivers. The rental affordability index released today, shows the region has been one of the hardest hit across the country.
https://www.nbnnews.com.au/2022/11/29/new-data-shows-rental-affo…
# Video NSW, Rent.We can’t just build our way out of Australia’s housing problems
Andi Nygaard Inside Story (No paywall)Housing minister Clare O’Neil says it’s “just too hard” to build houses in this country because “builders face a ridiculous thicket of red tape.” That must change, she says, if we’re to tackle the “fundamental problem” and “build more homes, more quickly.” This is the dominant view of Australia’s housing challenge — homes are too expensive to rent and buy because we don’t build enough of them, and we don’t build enough of them because there’s too much regulation. The proposed solution is to reform zoning, planning and building rules to unlock more supply.
https://insidestory.org.au/we-cant-just-build-our-way-out-of-aus…
# Hot topic Australia, .New pilot sees real estate agents partner with case workers to help find secure homes for victim-survivors
Isabella Ross ABC (No paywall)When Maya left a violent home and sought safety in a women's refuge alongside her young daughter, she never foresaw her child being removed from her care. Now, nine months on, she is rebuilding her life and hoping to regain custody — thanks in part to securing stable housing. Maya, whose name has been changed for safety reasons, said she experienced domestic violence from the father of her child, amid the throes of addiction. "All we'd ever known is to sell drugs and take drugs … [It was] a very unhealthy and toxic relationship that was just spiralling."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-22/real-estate-agent-help-do…
# Australia, Domestic violence, Rent.Housing is a human right, not a business activity. It’s time for Australia’s laws to reflect that
Kevin Bell The Guardian (No paywall)Housing is a human right, but our laws do not reflect that. This failure has helped drive us into a housing disaster, where homes are treated as commodities rather than as the foundation of human dignity. The housing system in Australia is failing because it is designed for profit, not people. It encourages us to treat housing as a business activity rather than as a means of meeting fundamental human needs. I grew up in public housing in Moorabbin in south-east Melbourne in the 1950s and 60s.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/25/housing-hu…
# Must read Australia, .Rent changes on way for hundreds of social housing recipients following government review
Jack McKay ABC (No paywall)The Queensland government has identified property owners who are social housing recipients, as well as dozens of public tenants earning more than the income limit. The LNP announced in June that it would begin annual rental reviews for social housing tenants to determine if they complied with eligibility rules. Since July 1, the Housing Department has begun more than 2,000 reviews, including 1,423 that have already been completed.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08-26/qld-rent-changes-social-h…
# Australia, Public and community housing.Eight tried-and-tested ways to tackle a housing crisis
Rebecca Roke Architecture AU (No paywall)Amassing more than 20 years of exemplary projects, the recent Housing Actions symposium raised eight key strategies as to how we might approach the complexity and scale of Australia’s decades-long housing crisis. In response to the complexity and scale of Australia’s decades-long housing crisis, MUL’s focus on strategic interventions recognises the value of a careful, methodical approach tested in existing settings, developed in partnership with public and government bodies, and refined through a triangulation of research, teaching and practice.
https://architectureau.com/articles/eight-tried-and-tested-ways-…
# Research alert Australia, .Queensland’s ‘anti-social’ housing policy is a disgraceful attack on homeless people
Tabitha Lean, Debbie Kilroy and Brigitte Hunt Crikey (No paywall)From July 1, the Liberal Queensland government began a quiet purge. Under the guise of promoting “safe and peaceful neighbourhoods”, it launched a new anti-social behaviour policy that threatens to evict public housing tenants and cancel their social housing applications — while also banning them from reapplying for social housing for two years — if they are deemed to have breached “zero tolerance” standards for behaviour deemed “dangerous and/or illegal”.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2025/08/21/queenslands-anti-social-hou…
# Australia, .