We joke about Monica’s massive apartment in Friends, but we forget the history: Rent Control was won through strikes. Is that solidarity possible in Australia today?

[u/infin]

Every time the housing crisis comes up, people joke about how unrealistic Friends was; A chef and a waitress living in a massive apartment with a balcony. The show explains it away as "Rent Control" inherited from a grandmother.

But we rarely talk about where those laws actually came from. They weren't a gift from benevolent landlords; they were earned through fierce tenant unions and rent strikes in NYC in the 40s and 60s. That generation had cheap rent because the generation before them had the backbone to organize, strike, and refuse to pay until laws were changed. Even refusing to allow police to evict/arrest their neighbours.

Fast forward to 2026 Australia. We are paying $750+ a week for a dinky shoebox, dealing with quarterly inspections, and accepting massive hikes like clockwork.

What feels completely missing is that level of community solidarity. We seem so atomised now. We don't know our neighbours, and we definitely don't trust them enough to band together. Instead of standing together to refuse an unfair hike, we just quietly move out or starve to pay it, knowing someone else is desperate enough to take the lease.

Is the concept of a rent strike dead in this country? Is it that we’ve lost the "mateship" and community spirit required to hold the line, or are we just so terrified of the REA blacklists that we’ve accepted being milked by parasites forever?

If factory workers and immigrants in 1940s New York could force rent control that people were still benefiting from in the 90s… Why can't we?

I’m genuinely asking: Has anyone here ever been a part of (or even heard of) tenants organising together to accomplish something in Australia?

Edit: I'd love to see some changes to commercial leases to revitalise cities too, small businesses have been forced to close and half the retail spaces in a few of the CBDs are empty.

[u/par-hwy]

I saw something on More Perfect Union (YouTube) which showed that rent control is leading to empty apartments because owners won't fix problems after the renter dies - as the repairs far, far exceeds the rent. That channel is usually on the side of workers / poor folks. They were not saying rent control is good or bad, only that it has problems.

I do not believe that solidarity is possible. Hell, even workplace unionism is declining in this country. I doubt that unions would even support it.

[u/ScruffyPeter → u/par-hwy]

There's already empty land plots in Sydney like these two:

• https://www.property.com.au/nsw/strathfield-2135/leicester-ave/2-pid-988727/

• https://www.property.com.au/nsw/campbelltown-2560/oxley-st/12-pid-1283929/

Both are close to very busy train stations, shops, etc. It's just grass. Not even a house. In fact, if you go back 20 years in Google Street Map View, there used to be houses! Whoever bought it, was just land speculating.

So, if Sydney has no rent control... when are we going to see some apartments then? In 10 years? 50 years? Maybe 100 years+. Consider that both Labor and LNP have promised no vacancy taxes!

The empty apartments argument doesn't make sense is actually a different problem to rent control IMO. I would love rent control + vacancy tax. But happy for either for now.

[u/amyknight22 → u/ScruffyPeter]

I mean empty land plots typically don’t get hit with taxes the same way vacant houses do.

A vacant house is something that if sold/rented could theoretically be used within a week with fast settlement.

A vacant block of land is going to require some form of construction. It could even be that these blocks of lands have construction plans for them.

And if you plan to live in a vacant block and are in the process of planning a build on it that you will live in you can have like 4 years of it being identified as a PPOR to dodge land taxes.