奧運短租價漲20倍 倫敦房東趕房客

Tenants living in east London are facing eviction from their homes with hardly any notice by landlords wanting to cash in on the Olympics.

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter has seen numerous cases of families being forced to seek last minute accommodation after being evicted by their landlords.

In some cases, the tenants are even being evicted illegally by rogue landlords who instead want to use their properties for short-terms lets at inflated rental prices during the London games.

Many homes near the Olympic grounds are being let for 20 times the usual rental price during the games.

Campbell Robb, Chief Executive at Shelter, said: 'Londoners living in the Olympic boroughs are already suffering from increasingly unaffordable rents, a lack of stability and a minority of rogue landlords who exploit the high demand for homes in the capital.

'Increasingly we are seeing signs that the Olympics are exacerbating these problems, with some landlords looking to evict tenants and re-let their homes to Olympic visitors, without any guarantee that they will be filled.

'But the reality is that we are caught in the grip of a housing crisis that’s been decades in the making. Unless the Government starts to prioritise housing and invest in the decent, secure and affordable homes that London and the rest of the country desperately needs, these problems are not going to go away.'

One tenant Ninna Thorhuge told the BBC she had been given just two weeks notice by her landlord that she had to move out.

She told the TV station: 'Everything is done in the name of the Olympics. In my mind it's overrated.

'I know it may be good for London but a lot of Londoners who live here get hurt by it.'

Housing Minister Grant Shapps told the BBC: 'Landlords should be under no doubt that it is a criminal offence for them to evict a tenant without giving proper notice, and that anyone found guilty of doing this - or of harassing a tenant - could lead to a custodial sentence of up to two years.'

The National Landlords Association also condemned the practice - warning landlords it is often more beneficial to have good, long-term tenants in their property.

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)