Housing News

Architects, refugees team up on tiny houses in Berlin

By AFP

Berlin - Troubled to see a long queue of asylum seekers shivering for hours on a winter's day outside Berlin's notoriously chaotic registration centre, Van Bo Le-Mentzel decided to take action.

Controversial Moscow housing plan comes into force

By AFP

Moscow - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed a controversial law authorising the demolition of several thousand Soviet-era Moscow apartment blocks and the relocation of their inhabitants.

Greece takes home foreclosures online to avoid protests

By AFP

Atenas - The scene has become familiar in Greece in recent months -- a middle-aged woman in a courthouse, trying to dodge an angry crowd shouting inches from her face."Get out, crow!

Stunned residents turfed out of London tower blocks over fire concerns

By AFP

London - Baffled and bewildered, residents of five London tower blocks were dragging their belongings through the dark streets early Saturday, having been told to pack their bags and get out due to fire safety concerns."It's totally crazy.

Kim centre stage as N. Korea tensions mount

By AFP

Pyongyang - Officials to the left of him, generals to the right, and in the middle of mounting tensions over his nuclear ambitions, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on Thursday opened a prestige housing project with tens of thousands of his adoring citizens looking...

Gang violence on the rise on edges of Algerian cities

By AFP

Alger - Tired of living in fear of gang violence, Karima and her children left the drab satellite town of Ali Mendjeli near Constantine in northeast Algeria to seek refuge with in-laws.

Lagos poor left homeless by ruthless modernisation bid

By AFP

Lagos - Efforts by Lagos authorities to turn Nigeria's chaotic commercial capital into a modern megacity have run into controversy after the demolition of an impoverished waterfront neighbourhood left 30,000 people homeless.

Trump considering ex-rival Ben Carson as housing secretary

By AFP

Washington - Donald Trump's one-time presidential rival, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, appeared to be a cabinet shoo-in Tuesday after both men mentioned his possible Housing and Urban Development appointment."I am seriously considering Dr.

Berlin's hold-out squat fires up gentrification battle

By AFP

Berlin - Branded a hotbed of lawless left-wing extremists after street clashes in July left over 100 police injured, one of Berlin's last squats has become the symbol of a raging battle over gentrification.

Casablanca building collapse kills two, woman missing

By AFP

Casablanca - Rescuers on Saturday searched for a woman believed trapped under a building that collapsed in Morocco's economic capital Casablanca, killing two people and injuring 24, officials and witnesses said.

One woman takes on Rio Olympic builders — and wins

By AFP

Rio De Janeiro - If the world's strongest and fastest athletes in Rio's Olympic Park want to see a real champion they should look across the fence for Maria da Penha Macena.

'You're never alone': Russia celebrates its communal flats

By AFP

Sanktpeterburg - A leftover from the Soviet era, the communal flat or "kommunalka" with bathroom and kitchen shared by a dozen or so residents is very much alive in Russia's historic city of Saint Petersburg.

Last Rio Olympic site dwellers dreams of staying

By AFP

Rio De Janeiro - Marcia Lemos's address is still 68 de la Avenida Autodromo, but not for long: the final resident of a neighborhood razed to make way for Rio's Olympic Park knows the bulldozers are coming.

Venezuela low-income housing residents dream of owning

By AFP

Caracas - Lisbeth Alcala doesn't have a piece of paper to show she owns her home in Caribia Socialist City, a housing project that quite literally bears the sprawling signature of late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Heartbreak as historic Hong Kong village demolished

By AFP

Hong Kong - A 650-year-old urban walled village in Hong Kong -- the last of its kind -- will be destroyed to make way for development in what critics say is another nail in the coffin for the city's cultural heritage.

People who live in penthouses at heart attack risk

By Tim Sandle

Toronto - It may be a symbol of aspiration, but there is a downside. People living in penthouses are more likely to die of a heart attack, at least according to new research.

Italy squatters plea for stop to evictions for pope's 'Year of Mercy'

By AFP

Rome - Italian police clashed with squatters in central Rome Tuesday during a housing rights demonstration, with protesters saying evictions should be put on hold during Pope Francis's "Year of Mercy".

Sweden could take in more migrants: Official

By AFP

Stockholm - Sweden could accept greater numbers of migrants if they were distributed more evenly across the country, a government official said Sunday.

Op-Ed: High Density housing issue has neighborhood talking Special

By Jonathan Farrell

San Francisco - The subject of high density housing in the Sunset took center stage at the Sunset Heights Association of Responsible People this past summer.

Homeless crisis in L.A. — City will declare state of emergency

By Karen Graham

Los Angeles - On Tuesday, after acknowledging their failure in stemming the surge of homelessness in the city, municipal officials in Los Angeles, California took the drastic step of announcing they were declaring a "state of emergency."

Empty Cairo homes beyond reach of Egypt's poor

By AFP

Cairo - Ahmed and Mohamed are both married with children but still live with their mother, unable to afford one of the hundreds of thousands of homes sitting empty in Egypt's capital.

Homes razed in DR Congo's border zone with Rwanda

By AFP

Goma - Bulldozers, homes in ruins, anger: after years of war the people of Goma in eastern DR Congo now are bearing the brunt of moves to clear a neutral zone on the border with Rwanda to prevent further conflict.

Spain's top court overturns regional anti-eviction law

By AFP

Madrid - Spain's Constitutional Court on Tuesday struck down a regional law which blocked banks from repossessing homes from the most needy families for up to three years.

Micro-apartments: A new concept in New York

By AFP

New York - New York, a city of exorbitant rents with more and more single residents, is about to get a brand new type of apartment: micro-units, for decades prohibited under zoning regulations.

West Bank village challenges Israel's iron grip on planning

By AFP

Palestinian - It was a large house with three floors and freshly painted pale blue shutters that had just been built for a family of 17.But within a few hours of work by a pair of Israeli bulldozers, all that was left was a mountain of rubble and twisted metal.