Affordable dorms for students, corporate landlords driving up rental costs and bullying tenants, freezing at christmas due to exploding energy prizes. Or indeed mapping, which cities have a growing young population, and which cities have ageing populations. These are just a few stories producded by the European Cities Investigative Journalism Accelerator, a collaboration of European media.
The Arena-coordinated cross-border investigation “Cities for Rent” won the European Press Prize for Innovation, when the prizes were announced on June 2nd.
Cities for Rent is a cross-border investigation into the phenomenon of corporate landlords: private companies that have been acquiring more and more homes for profit across European cities. It has grown out of the Arena Housing Network, a collaborative network of journalists interested in housing launched by Arena at Dataharvest 2019,