Housing mafia

Every day, the editorial staff at the UK wonders: What are we writing about, why are we writing about it, and how are we writing about it? A weekly look behind the scenes.

Last week and this week, the UK published a two-part story (Hunting the housing mafia) about conmen on the Groningen housing market. Internationals desperately searching for a place to live in a city they don’t know are especially likely to fall victim to these devious practices – often through Facebook groups offering living space.

We started our investigation months ago, in the autumn of 2016, when we heard of yet another case of students being swindled. That was reason enough for us to pretend we were somewhat naive foreign students who’d never seen the Grote Markt and had no idea how the housing market in Groningen works.

In other words, we went undercover.

Time-consuming

These kinds of journalistic projects take a lot of time, money, energy, and perseverance. We knew that going in, and that’s exactly how it went. Approximately six months on, every single UK editor, including freelancers and student editors, has contributed in one form or another. It was a great team effort.

We wanted to do more than just give an overview of the results or present a factual reconstruction – two rather common journalistic formats – but we also wanted to take the reader with us on our search for the perpetrators and their methods. We wanted to make the reader feel like they were watching over our shoulders and to help them empathise with the uncertainty, confusion and doubt that inexorably crop up in projects like these.

Nervous

In one instance, we join authors Nina and Leonie one dark evening as they somewhat nervously (they may look tough in the video, but it was pretty scary) ring the doorbell at one of the apartments. They know that the situation is fishy, but they don’t know what they’ll find exactly.

We read about how they’re being intimidated, and how they try to find an apartment that doesn’t even exist. And how they come into contact with a possible money mule and (ultimately innocent) people whose identities are being used to con others, all the way in Canada.

Unmask

Spoiler alert: Despite our efforts, we were unable to unmask the perpetrators. But we did figure out and expose their cunning and brazen methods. And we provided some practical advice and tips on how to avoid falling into their trap.

At the same time, the story is about the rather lax attitude of the authorities to combat this problem which occurs again and again every year. Reports that go missing, discouraging police (‘You don’t need to report it, it’s useless anyway’): no one taking responsibility.

Rob Siebelink, editor-in-chief

Dutch

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