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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 19h

Monday was International Tenants' Day! We're genuinely excited by all of the renters' rights movements around the world today—rent controls in Scotland, rent freezes campaigns in NYC, legislation for leases in South Africa, & many more—and hope you too feel buoyed by the wins for renters everywhere.

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 20h

Hopefully both, in succession! (Your house is hot and then we do the project and the reforms that result from all the data and lobbying cool your house down ✨)

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 1d

We hope the next yearly check-in will come with unambiguously positive news.

Read more about the report here: www.tenants.org.au/reports/two-...

Two Year Performance Report on the progress of A Better Deal for Renters

Renters in Australia continue to face inconsistent tenancy laws and an ongoing lack of protection. The Rental Report by the National Association of Renters’ Organisations (NARO) and National Shelter…

www.tenants.org.au

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 1d

The Better Deal for Renters was already full of compromises, and now even those are being delivered piecemeal and with delay. Renters' needs must be taken seriously—with another sweltering summer on the way, those un-phased-in minimum standards are going to be keenly felt.

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 1d

Not much has changed since last year, when the last check-in was released. There's been no movement on ending no-grounds evictions in WA or the NT, no standardisation of rental applications in the ACT, TAS, or WA, and little progress on minimum standards anywhere in the last 12 months.

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 1d

Last week, the National Association of Renters' Organisations and National Shelter released a report following up on the Better Deal for Renters. The Deal has now been in place for two years—has renting gotten any better?

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 2d

➡️ Sign up at the link in our bio, or head to bit.ly/renter-lab-SS25 !

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 2d

...either because they’re poorly-built and maintained, or because renters just can’t afford to cool them. You can make a big difference!

💪 All you have to do is fill out our application, get your tracker, and occasionally sync your numbers to our app. Too easy!

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 2d

⚗️ This has historically been one of our most impactful projects! We use the data you'll send us in our reports, our policy submissions to the government, and in our discussions with the media. It’s so important for us to be able to show just how much hotter renters’ homes get than owners’...

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 2d

👩‍🔬 We’ll sweat all the details—sending you a thermal tracker, hooking you in to our tracking app, crunching the numbers, and writing the report—you just have to…sweat, in your rental home, which is probably unhealthily hot.

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 2d

🔥 IT'S BACK: To mark International Tenants’ Day, we’re launching another season of our Renter Lab citizen science project! We’re opening applications for Renter Researchers in NSW to help us track just how unbelievably hot renter homes get in the summertime.

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 8d

You don't need us to explain to you how goofy that is, or that renters need to be protected from evictions instead of from sticker shock, but just for the record, our CEO Ange laid it all out for Yahoo Finance. Read the full article here: au.finance.yahoo.com/news/controv...

Controversial landlord 'tip' to hike rental prices for tenants sparks backlash: 'Unbelievable'

The Victorian real estate agency has apologised for the controversial 'tip', which has been blasted by rental advocates.

au.finance.yahoo.com

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 8d

You've probably seen the patronising "Market Tip Monday!" video from a Barry Plant property manager by now. It explains how tenants need their rent raised a teensy bit at every possible opportunity, so they don't get spooked by how expensive rents are elsewhere when you eventually evict them.

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 14d

Our CEO Ange spoke to Region.com along with other housing and human rights leaders about the decision: read the full piece here → buff.ly/tCodLnS

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 14d

The ACT decision to make a housing a human right in the territory is great—but it has to mean something. If we call housing a human right and then continue to not provide it to every human, that's worse!

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 20d

Since the ACT has been the vanguard for renting reforms, we've got our hopes up that we'll see the follow-through we're all hoping for. Until then, this is good news! You can read our initial submission, with more of our thoughts on housing as a human right, here: bit.ly/BR-housing-r...

Submission to Inquiry into the ACT Human Rights (Housing) Amendment Bill

Better Renting welcomes the Human Rights (Housing) Amendment Bill 2025 and strongly supports the recognition of housing as a human right in ACT law. In this submission, we reflect on the importance…

www.betterrenting.org.au

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 20d

All that remains to be seen is how this will actually affect the ACT's housing system. Unless we see more legislation requiring compliance with the principle, or requiring housing provision considerations in ACT planning policies, then this win could slump into empty symbolism.

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 20d

Back in July, we made a submission to the ACT Legislative Assembly in support of a bill that would recognise housing as a human right in the Territory. Yesterday, that legislation passed, which is great! Every single person should have a safe, healthy, affordable home.

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 20d

Since the ACT has been the vanguard for renting reforms, we've got our hopes up that we'll see the follow-through we're all hoping for. Until then, this is good news!

Submission to Inquiry into the ACT Human Rights (Housing) Amendment Bill

Better Renting welcomes the Human Rights (Housing) Amendment Bill 2025 and strongly supports the recognition of housing as a human right in ACT law. In this submission, we reflect on the importance…

www.betterrenting.org.au

Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 21d

📮 We hope to see a flurry of letters in the coming weeks, and if you'd like to share your story too, join us! Join our Whatsapp group at bit.ly/BR-letters or email [email protected] to get our writing guide, tips to getting published, and access to workshopping and feedback!

Letters to the Editor - A Place to Call Home

WhatsApp Group Invite

bit.ly

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 21d

🌡️ She wrote to The Age about the National Climate Risk Assessment, which neglected to mention renters or much about existing residential health risks, to comment on how renters are *already* suffering from climate change & lax protections. We don't have to wait for the apocalypse—it's already here.

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 21d

📰 Extra extra! The first dispatch from our letters-to-the-editor blitz has hit newsstands everywhere!

🌟 Our successful writer was Madeline: you may remember her as the renter who went to Parliament with photos of her ceiling, which had collapsed overnight & took months for her landlord to fix.

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 23d

Read about the Climate Risk Assessment here: www.acs.gov.au/pages/nation...

Learn about the Australian Housing Conditions Dataset here: dataverse.ada.edu.au/dataset.xhtm...

And read Environment Victoria's paper on energy-efficiency for renters here: environmentvictoria.org.au/2017/09/27/b...

National Climate Risk Assessment

Learn about Australia's first National Climate Risk Assessment.

www.acs.gov.au

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 23d

Unless we make sure this conversation includes renters & renter protections are enshrined in law, this gap is going to widen, with disastrous results.

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Better Renting @betterrenting.bsky.social · 23d

Rental homes are already more likely to have defects than owner-occupied homes (Australian Housing Conditions Dataset) & less likely to be energy efficient (Environment Victoria).

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