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
Why 'forever renters' are the new buzzword in Australia’s ongoing housing debate
Lucia Stein and Kate Jones ABC (No paywall)Home ownership is a pervasive ideal in Australia. Almost from the time we are born, we are told that "rent money is dead money" and "owning a house is a safe bet". So it's perhaps unsurprising that we carry those attitudes into adulthood and dream of one day buying a home. In the 1970s, the median house price in Sydney was $18,700, while in Melbourne, it was $12,800. The median price in the NSW capital now is $1,186,459 and in Melbourne it's $772,561, according to CoreLogic.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-27/australians-forever-rente…
# Hot topic Australia, .NSW government takes Lismore Pine St squatters to the Supreme Court
Elizabeth Pike Daily Telegraph (Paywall)The Minns government’s fight to remove illegal squatters from condemned homes in Lismore will be taken all the way to the Supreme Court after the NSW Reconstruction Authority (NSWRA) filed legal notices against the group. Squatters along Pine St were served ‘Statement of Claims’ this week as the government pursues a writ of possession to evict the collective of mostly holiday and temporary visa holders from buyback houses affected by the 2022 floods. The saga has pushed local tensions to the brink amid allegations squatters were blocking the street and defying police orders, while local “vigilantes” were accused of harassing group members.
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/nsw-government-takes-…
# Must read NSW, Disasters, Eviction.Boarding House Redevelopment Displaces Long-Term Residents in Paddington
Surry Hills News (No paywall)For over 20 years, Jeff Elliott lived in a modest studio inside a Paddington boarding house on Selwyn Street. He and 31 others formed a close-knit, low-income community that offered more than shelter — it provided social connection, mutual support, and stability. In early 2025, both the Selwyn Street boarding houses were sold to LFD Developments, who plan to replace the ageing properties with four new luxury homes. Most residents, including Mr Elliott’s long-time companions, were relocated with little time to say goodbye, leaving behind decades of shared memories.
https://surryhillsnews.com.au/boarding-house-redevelopment-displ…
# Hot topic NSW, Boarders and lodgers.NSW Rental Taskforce to tackle fairness in rental market
Aksel Ritenis Sydney Times (No paywall)*Media Release by Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading Anoulack Chanthivong. Renters in NSW now have a dedicated Rental Taskforce to hold landlords and real estate agents to account, and will address rental law violations following the Government's most significant rental reforms in more than a decade. With an $8.4 million investment, NSW Fair Trading's Rental Taskforce Willa analyse activities and trends within the rental market and conduct compliance actives such as inspections, audits and blitzes to prevent and act on breaches of the law.
https://www.sydneytimes.net.au/state-politics-and-government/nsw…
# Hot topic NSW, .Misinformation on housing issues
Coast Community News (No paywall)When reading Central Coast News issue 480, I noted that one of the three full-page Liberal Party advertisements featuring Lucy Wicks as the Robertson candidate for the forthcoming Federal election is focused on housing issues. This interested me as when recently looking at what housing policies the two major parties were putting forward, I studied what was available online and was concerned that a Liberal policy included the statement that ‘Labor has also revealed it is looking to introduce new housing taxes (including changes to negative gearing)’.
https://coastcommunitynews.com.au/central-coast/news/2025/03/mis…
# Hot topic NSW, .The cost of living crisis is hitting renters in Sydney harder than anywhere else in Australia
7 News (No paywall)The cost of living crisis is hitting renters in Sydney harder than anywhere else in Australia, with a new report revealing that housing in the Harbour City is $200 a week more expensive than in Melbourne.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHAvWK2BBwV/?utm_source=ig_web_co…
# TUNSW in the media, Video NSW, .Minns Labor Government delivers on rental reform by ending no grounds evictions on 19 May 2025
NSW Government (No paywall)More than 2.3 million renters in NSW will be better off thanks to the latest round of changes to rental laws which will help create a fairer rental market, including ending ‘no-grounds’ evictions and making it easier to keep a pet. The reforms will come into effect on 19 May 2025 following extensive consultation with renters, investors, animal welfare groups and industry representatives. They follow changes which commenced in October last year which ensure renters cannot be charged for background checks and limit rent increases to once per year. Further reforms, including stronger privacy protections for renters and the introduction of a portable rental bond scheme, are set to be introduced later in 2025.
https://www.nsw.gov.au/ministerial-releases/minns-labor-governme…
# Must read, Legal significance NSW, Eviction, Rent.https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-23/lismore-squatters-reclaim-abandoned-homes-despite-govt-threat/105076944
Jason Om and Richard Mockler ABC (No paywall)A short walk from the heart of Lismore are a bunch of homes among the gum trees on a dead-end road called Pine Street. Small camp fires burn, dogs saunter up and down the street. A sign in the grass says "Welcome". The people here are a mixed group of travellers, locals and activists who, for the past nine months, have occupied the empty homes, now seven in total. They call Pine Street a community, but the law calls it illegal. Some, like Tina, say she came here out of desperation, after her "heavy depression time". She told 7.30 that she and her teenage son moved here from the Central Coast, having lived in a car and a caravan for the past three years. In Lismore, 487 people are recorded by Homelessness NSW as homeless.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-23/lismore-squatters-reclaim…
# Must read NSW, Disasters, Rent.