We have the chance to guarantee the human right to housing – rather than a real-life game of Monopoly. We must take it
- Leilani Farha was the UN special rapporteur on the right to housing from 2014-2020
Two years ago, when Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, I had a strange sense of optimism. I wondered if this crisis might be one of opportunity, rather than opportunism. When the pandemic struck, another global crisis was already raging. In cities around the world, housing affordability had become an acute problem. The cost of housing had risen far beyond the rate of incomes. As the former UN special rapporteur on the right to housing, I had seen how tenants were struggling to pay rent, often falling into arrears and facing eviction.
These conditions were partly the result of the 2008 financial crisis, which provided fertile ground for investors to mine residential real estate and extract unprecedented profits. This “financialisation” of housing unleashed a new business model. Investors would buy “undervalued” and “distressed” homes, undertake renovations and raise rents to increase a property’s valuation – maximising their investment returns in the process.
Leilani Farha is global director of The Shift and was the UN special rapporteur on the right to housing from 2014-2020. She is the co-host of bi-monthly podcast, Pushback Talks
