In Melbourne, Australia, one in five investor-owned units lie empty, the report says; in Kensington, London, a prime location for rich investors, numbers of vacant homes rose by 40% between 2013 and 2014 alone. “In such markets the value of housing is no longer based on its social use,” the report says. “The housing is as valuable whether it is vacant or occupied, lived in or devoid of life. Homes sit empty while homeless populations burgeon.” …

Farha, 48, by background a human rights lawyer and anti-poverty activist, calls for a “paradigm shift” whereby housing is “once again seen as a human right rather than a commodity”. It is clear, she suggests, that the UN’s sustainable development goal of ensuring adequate housing for all by 2030 is not only receding, but without regulatory intervention to re-establish the primacy of housing as a social good, laughably optimistic.

International human rights activists are yet to recognise the scale of the problem, she says. “Human rights was the first framework to recognise issues like homelessness, forced eviction, displacement, housing issues for refugees … and yet human rights has not caught up with this rapid financialisation of housing – and I think we really need to.”

‘Housing should be seen as a human right. Not a commodity’
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/feb/28/luxury-real-estate-housing-crisis-un-homelessness