Multinational corporate property owner Akelius Residential AB is breaching human rights standards with its aggressive push for housing profits in countries around the world, a UN expert said today.

“Akelius’s business model [...] has created a hostile environment for its tenants through a severe degradation of housing conditions, higher rents and increased risk or threat of eviction,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, Leilani Farha...

Farha said she had heard of many cases where Akelius utilises an aggressive business model [...] and has told the company its operations in the UK, Canada and Germany are inconsistent with international human rights law on the right to adequate housing...

The renovations have left residents living in unsafe, construction sites for months and sometimes without running water and central heating...

“Although it does a lot for charity, Akelius’s business model is trampling on the human rights of its tenants, decreasing housing habitability, affordability and security of tenure,” Farha said.

“Commercial landlords like Akelius have an independent responsibility to respect human rights, which means that they must conduct human rights due diligence in order to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address adverse impacts on the right to housing,” the expert said.