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
Renovictions – what can we learn from the Canadian experience?
Eloise Parrab Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)On 19th May 2025 we celebrated the end of no grounds evictions with renters across NSW. Minister Chanthivong declared “We’ve listened to renters, owners, and industry experts to shape these changes, and we’ll continue working closely with stakeholders to ensure the transition is smooth and well understood.” So it was with great shock and dismay that we discovered that the NSW Government quietly changed the evidence requirements for one of the prescribed grounds for termination – namely renovations/repairs. This change was made on 20th June – just one month after the law was changed to end no-grounds termination. The effect is to open this ground to potential exploitation.
https://www.tenants.org.au/blog/renovictions-canadian-experience
# Must read, Research alert NSW, Eviction, Rent.Funding needed to warm dangerously cold Sydney homes
Ria Pandey and Thomas Sargeant Daily Telegraph (Paywall)Sydney homes are colder in winter than Finland, Sweden and even icebound Greenland and are as much as seven degrees below the World Health Organisation’s healthy indoor standard. It might be freezing inside but social media has been on fire as visitors from countries in the Arctic Circle complain about how cold it is inside Australian homes. It has led to calls for laws to be changed to make landlords responsible for making old homes “habitable” – and even for taxpayers to help fund retrofitting existing homes to make them warmer. To make matters worse, the Australian Energy Regulator has lifted the caps on how much retailers can charge for electricity as of July 1.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/funding-needed-to-war…
# NSW, Rent.Labor faces internal housing battle in PM’s heartland
Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)With proud Marrickville resident Anthony Albanese in The Lodge, Sydney’s inner west has become the centre of Australia’s political universe. It’s also the centre of one of the more pressing political issues of our time – how to build more housing in a central part of Sydney that has historically been pathologically opposed to development. The area is full of progressive Labor-Greens voters fully supportive of high-density, affordable housing in every suburb – barring their own. It’s the kind of place where people read Ezra Klein’s Abundance book for fun. Little surprise then that there are a multitude of views around how best to build, baby, build among influential Labor figures in the PM’s own backyard.
https://www.smh.com.au/cbd/labor-faces-internal-housing-battle-i…
# NSW, .Real Estate Renting Aussies shocked by price of roach-infested Sydney rental
Ella McIlveen news.com.au (No paywall)A young woman’s video exposing the shocking conditions of her Sydney rental has gone viral – sparking fresh outrage over the city’s housing crisis. The woman, who paid $240 a week to live in Petersham in Sydney’s inner west, shared a clip on social media showing her so-called “room”: A converted shipping container with a single window. Inside the house – shared with nine other tenants – she revealed grim living conditions including two shared bathrooms, both covered in greasy floors and littered with toilet rolls. In one bathroom, the entire toilet seat is lying on the floor, detached, while an unfazed cockroach crawls across the ceiling light.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/renting/aussies-shoc…
# NSW, Rent.Have your say: Ku-ring-gai council seeking community feedback on potential rate hikes
Huw Bradshaw North Shore Lorikeet (No paywall)Seeking to fund the “renewal and upgrade of aging infrastructure” in the upper North Shore region, councillors of Ku-ring-gai have put forward plans to increase rates in the 2026/27 financial year. But before it increases rates, the council must apply for a special rate variation, which is necessary when a council proposes a rise larger than the standard annual increase of 3 percent. Ku-ring-gai council is currently seeking community feedback on its plans, which have been split into four distinct options. These include the standard rate rise of 3 percent and three increasingly larger rates, of 22, 29, and 33 percent increases.
https://www.northshorelorikeet.com.au/p/have-your-say-ku-ring-ga…
# Hot topic NSW, .The exposed horror reality for tenants in NSW
Kaylee Cranley realestate.com.au (No paywall)A video tour of a Sydney home recently listed for rent has exposed the living conditions some tenants have been expected to endure, with the home alleged to have a trashed kitchen and leaking ceiling. Posted to Instagram by online content creator Jordan van den Lamb, who has garnered a large following from exposing less-than-desirable listings, the video casts the spotlight on a $550 a week listing in the inner west suburb of Burwood. Images reveal a deteriorating kitchen missing cupboards and drawers below the sink. Some of the last remaining doors appear to be hanging barely from hinges.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/the-exposed-horror-reality-fo…
# Hot topic NSW, .‘Get angry about it’: Mark Humphries’ doco Sold! unpacks Australia’s housing crisis
Walter Marsh The Guardian (No paywall)Sometimes, it feels as if you can’t turn on a TV without seeing news bulletins devoted to interest rate updates, fake-tanned celebrity realtors hawking white McMansions, or middle-aged men in chore jackets stroking their chins at a tasteful mid-century reno. Our free-to-air and streaming services are full of content to fuel our national obsession with home ownership. But when it comes to the real-life housing market, you might be left thinking there’s a bigger picture just out of shot from those million-dollar views.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/jul/21/get-angry-a…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Developer blocked from converting Sydney boarding house into luxury apartments
Ethan Rix and Holly Treganza ABC (No paywall)A property developer has been blocked from converting a Sydney boarding house into luxury apartments in what some say could be a precedent-setting legal ruling. LFD Developments took the City of Sydney to court after the council rejected its proposal to convert the 32-room boarding house in Paddington, which once provided sanctuary to vulnerable residents, into four luxury homes. The developer lost its appeal on the rejected application in the NSW Land and Environment Court on Thursday on the grounds of social impact and the loss of affordable housing.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-10/nsw-sydney-paddington-boa…
# Must read, Hot topic NSW, Boarders and lodgers, Eviction.