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,

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Everyone needs a home, and high demand for rental flats across European cities has contributed to make housing a very attractive investment. The total investment into residential real estate in Europe increased more than 700 per cent between 2009 and 2020, from 7.9 to 66.9 billion euros, according to data by Real Capital Analytics.