Housing News

As families flee Paris, fingers point at Airbnb

By AFP

Paris - The bells will ring for the last time this week at Vaugirard elementary school in central Paris, the latest school in the city to close as spiralling property prices drive families out of the capital.

Malta moves all rental contracts to blockchain

By Tim Sandle

Malta has taken the decision to harness the transparency advantages and tighter security that comes with blockchain to underpin its entire rental sector.

Q&A: How technology can help with affordable housing Special

By Tim Sandle

Affordable housing is an enormous challenge in high income countries. However, there are several startups offering technologies designed to help address the affordable housing challenge, as Nate Loewentheil from Camber Creek reveals.

Q&A: Where digital mortgage providers are missing the mark Special

By Tim Sandle

Digital mortgages are becoming a more popular choice for consumers. However, the new startups do not fully understand the lending landscape, according to Karl Jacob, of LoanSnap as he explains to Digital Journal.

Amazon is selling a $7,250 tiny home kit

By Business Insider

Amazon is selling a tiny home kit that can be assembled in just 8 hours. The vendor, Allwood, said the structure isn't supposed to serve as a permanent residence, since there's no bathroom or kitchen.

Hong Kong to build $79 bn artificial island

By AFP

Fpo - Hong Kong plans to build one of the world's largest artificial islands with an eye-watering $79 billion price tag, city officials announced Tuesday.

PropTech adoption is disrupting the real estate sector

By Tim Sandle

Every sector of the economy is undergoing digital disruption, and commercial real estate is not exception. A new report from Altus Group Limited shows significant acceleration in adoption of property technology (“PropTech”), which will trigger changes

Q&A: New blockchain solutions for real estate Special

By Tim Sandle

Blockchain is set to disrupt real; estate in 2019. Jointer’s CEO & Founder, Jude Regev offers insight on blockchain solutions for real estate property owners and investors and what the future holds for tokenization solutions.

No place like home: Dublin boom fuels housing spiral

By AFP

Dublin - Sharing a studio flat in Dublin with two other people, Greek security guard Aris complains about the housing crisis that forces him to live in cramped conditions.

Rights groups call for UN action on Egypt 'reprisals'

By AFP

Geneva - Rights groups on Wednesday called for a "robust" response to a UN expert's allegations that people she met during a visit to Egypt faced harassment, intimidation and other reprisals afterwards.

UN experts decry Egypt 'reprisals'

By AFP

Geneva - A United Nations rights expert voiced alarm Tuesday over Egypt's clampdown on people she met with during a recent visit, saying their homes were demolished while others were forcibly evicted or arrested.

Spanish pensioner kills herself over eviction

By AFP

Madrid - A Spanish pensioner killed herself by jumping from the fifth floor of her Madrid apartment on Monday as police tried to evict her.

More evacuations as 8th victim found in French building collapse

By AFP

Marseille - Rescue workers Friday pulled an eighth body from the rubble of two dilapidated buildings which collapsed in the southern French city of Marseille, as residents were evacuated and nearby buildings inspected.

Living on edge: Vietnam's 'black canal' dwellers

By AFP

Ho Chi Minh - On the banks of Ho Chi Minh City's Xuyen Tam canal the houses come in many forms. Short or tall, pieced together from scraps of wood, or metal or plastic. Some tilt precariously over the polluted water's edge.

Q&A: Blockchain makes waves in real-estate Special

By Tim Sandle

Camber Creek is aiming to help start-up companies that have created technology that can improve the real estate industry by investing in them and helping them into the space. This includes innovations in blockchain.

'Capsule housing' project sparks outrage in Spain

By AFP

Barcelona - A Barcelona company sparked outrage in Spain on Thursday with a plan to rent tiny pods where low income workers would live side-by-side like bees in a hive for as little as 200 euros ($232) a monthThe company argues the project called Haibu -- which me...

Dutch city to unveil world's first 3D-printed housing complex

By AFP

Den Haag - The southern Dutch city of Eindhoven plans to unveil the world's first 3D-printed housing complex next year, which its inventors believe could revolutionise the building industry by speeding up and customising construction.

Construction is using tech to seek efficiencies

By Tim Sandle

New technologies have the potential to make a substantial impact upon the home of the future. The smart home concept can one day be extended to an entire town, according to a new state-of-the-industry report.

Hong Kong golf course row exposes city's social divide

By AFP

Fpo - Its sprawling greens and woodland have made Hong Kong's historic Fanling golf course a favourite with homegrown and international stars, but it is now under threat after being listed for potential housing development.

Close quarters: Vietnam's downtown dwellers cling to tiny plots

By AFP

Ho Chi Minh - Pham Quoc Cong walks two kilometres to use the bathroom because his 2.2 meters-squared house isn't big enough to have one.

For tens of thousands in Sao Paulo, squatting is only way out

By AFP

S - At home with her student daughter in their central Sao Paulo apartment, Rosangela Gomes de Melo hardly resembles a squatter.

Interview: Smart containers offer affordable housing solutions Special

By Tim Sandle

Paul Galvin is a designer, innovator and fabricator of container-based structures, and he has hit upon an idea for using container technology as an affordable housing solution. To find out how the idea is progressing, read our exclusive interview.

Decade after bubble burst, Ireland still faces housing crisis

By AFP

Dublin - Ten years after Ireland's property bubble burst, the economy is recovering from the ravages of a deep recession but a housing crisis remains, due to a supply shortage and spiralling prices.

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.