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
On three frames of the housing crisis
The Fifth Estate (No paywall)This week the topic of housing slammed back to centre stage from three different frames. First was a view from the broad market at the top end of town. It was via a so-called SyLon event, held simultaneously at Lendlease headquarters in Sydney’s Barangaroo and the London Centre in the UK on Tuesday night. As with most in-person events, the gems garnered off stage were just as insightful (if not all as repeatable) as those on stage.
https://thefifthestate.com.au/columns/news-from-the-front-desk/o…
# Hot topic Australia, .Voters call for action on rising rents, house prices as Tasmanian state election nears
Fiona Blackwood ABC (No paywall)At 28, Amelia Bird would love to become a home-owner in Tasmania — but she isn't hopeful. Half of her income is spent on rent, with little left over to save for a house deposit. "It's hard … when you scroll through the (real estate) listings and you see the prices and they just keep going up and up and you're still not close to having a deposit you would need," she said. Ms Bird has been a renter since she was 16 and at times found herself without a home and couch surfing. Reflecting on the impact of housing insecurity, she said "you don't want to find yourself in a situation where you don't have a home".
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-12/tasmania-stateline-your-s…
# Australia, .Support payment for renters on Treasury's housing options list
Tom Crowley ABC (No paywall)Reviewing the welfare payment for low-income renters is one of several ideas presented to Housing Minister Clare O'Neil after the election to reset Labor's housing agenda. A table of contents which was accidentally sent to the ABC has revealed Treasury told Ms O'Neil and Treasurer Jim Chalmers the government's signature target of 1.2 million new homes in five years "will not be met". Mr Chalmers has defended the target, admitting more work was needed but insisting it was achievable.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-15/support-payment-for-rente…
# Australia, .Homelessness is a driver of poor health in Australia – so why not make housing part of healthcare?
Ehsan Noroozinejad The Guardian (No paywall)Picture a GP clinic in western Sydney. Nadia*, 34, is back for her third script of the year. She started getting panic attacks after her landlord hiked the rent several times. Each time she feared the next eviction notice would push her, her partner and two kids into homelessness. The doctor adjusts her dose, offers a mental-health plan, but there’s something else that could also help Nadia – access to secure and affordable housing. The data is now overwhelming: a recent rental affordability index labelled every capital city in Australia “critically unaffordable” for anyone on the minimum wage in 2024.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/15/homelessne…
# Must read Australia, .Nine homes in three years: Australia’s rental crisis laid bare
Amelia Swan news.com.au (No paywall)Jess Preston was just 17 when she moved into her first rental – an arrangement so dodgy her landlord insisted on cash-only payments, banned cooking indoors and ultimately faced the tribunal after Ms Preston took legal action. “I was young so I didn’t know these weren’t things that were not OK to have as a condition,” Ms Preston said. After escaping an unsafe home as a teenager, Ms Preston, now 22 and studying at university in Canberra, has moved nine times in just three years, spending part of that time in shelters and on the streets.
https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/nine-homes-in-three-ye…
# Australia, .Five changes domestic violence experts say could make the Northern Territory safer for women
Grace Atta ABC (No paywall)The Northern Territory has the highest rates of family and domestic violence in Australia, with a rate of intimate partner homicide seven times the national average. With just a handful of DV shelters — including some that can turn away up to 200 women each month — the ABC asked experts in the sector how the territory could become a safer place for women, children and families. Those on the front line know there are no quick fixes, especially in a jurisdiction where cultural diversity, remoteness and significant disadvantage add to the challenges.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-16/five-ways-the-northern-te…
# Must read Australia, Domestic violence.Black people in England four times as likely to face homelessness, study finds
Jessica Murray The Guardian (No paywall)Black people in England are almost four times as likely to face homelessness as white people and substantially less likely to get social housing, according to the first major study into homelessness and racism in more than two decades. A three-year research project by academics at Heriot-Watt University found that ethnicity affects a person’s risk of homelessness, even when controlling for factors such as geography, poverty and home ownership rates.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/11/race-homelessnes…
# Must read International, Discrimination.Green housing advocates celebrate no roll back of insulation standards
Eloise Gibson Radio NZ (No paywall)Green housing advocates are celebrating the end of plans to lower insulation standards. Green Building Council head Andrew Eagles said the decision to save the standards meant 30,000 additional whānau would be in healthier, warmer homes each year. RNZ revealed last year that building and construction minister Chris Penk wanted to roll back insulation standards that saved a new home an estimated 40 percent on heating. Some builders had told Penk the new standards had forced up insulation costs by $40,000-$50,000 but he later acknowledged independent advice did not back that up.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/565968/green-housing-advoca…
# International, .