After more than a decade of renting, 33-year-old Max and his partner had finally pooled enough of their income to buy a home, and they'd been living there for 18 months. But on Monday afternoon, while they were working from home, a man knocked on the door hoping to move in.
Max told The Feed the man said to him: "There's this post online saying your home is vacant."
Max was told his home had been publicly listed as "vacant" earlier that day on X (formerly Twitter) by Jordan van den Berg, otherwise known as "purplepingers".
The database set up for sharing vacant homes
Jordan has gained a large following on social media for highlighting unsatisfactory rental and housing practices. His website allows users to review former rental properties, real estate agencies, and agents.
While Jordan says he doesn't encourage breaking and entering, he does encourage squatting as a way of combatting the scarce housing market — with national vacancy rates as low as 1.2 per cent as of April 2024, according to SQM Research.
Earlier this year, Jordan set up an online form for people to submit the addresses of properties they believed to be unoccupied. Jordan says he vets the submissions and publicly shares the addresses of properties that could be used by squatters — people who move into unoccupied homes.
He told The Feed he has received 1,177 listings of vacant properties in total.
Jordan says he usually reviews the properties by searching real estate websites, looking at Google street view, and ensuring the home hadn't been sold in the past two years — which Max's had.
When unwanted visitors show up on the doorstep
Max hadn't heard of Jordan before the unexpected knock but says it was "unnerving" to have a potential squatter showing up at his home.
"I'm sure Jordan's intention wasn't to have people show up to an occupied residence … it wasn't the best person I've ever had visit my home," Max said.
Max was concerned that if he or his partner hadn't been home, a squatter could have tried to let themselves in, or vandalised their property.
Jordan van den Berg is known for exposing 'shitty rentals', and set up a database earlier this year which allows anyone to submit a vacant property. Source: Supplied
But now that his address has been shared online, he's concerned for his privacy.
"It's like a soft form of doxing (the online release of someone's identity, private information or personal details without their consent), right? He hasn't attached my name or my identity, but [Jordan] has certainly said: 'hey, here's a prime address, come along and see what you think'."
In Australia, it may not be illegal for a squatter to enter a property if it looks abandoned and the doors are unlocked. If the door isn't unlocked, the squatter could be criminally charged for breaking and entering. If a property owner asks a squatter to leave and they stay, they are trespassing.
A mistaken inclusion
Jordan told The Feed that including Max's address as vacant was an error. He has since edited the post on X and issued an apology to Max.
"This one shouldn't have made it past my vetting process … it's very unfortunate," Jordan said.
Jordan set up this Google form which allows anyone to list a property before he vets the vacant properties and lists them publicly. Source: SBS
Australia's empty homes aren't necessarily unoccupied
There may be as many as 136,000 empty houses in Australia, according to recent estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2023.
President of the Australian Landlords Association, Andrew Kent, said there "was something very uncomfortable about the practice [squatting]", likening it to stealing a parked car.
"This car has been parked in the street for 'X' amount of time. Why don't you take it? There's something wrong about that… it's clearly not good advice," Kent said.
Kent said Jordan's system can create dangerous situations for squatters who may be , or homes that are set to be demolished.
He said another concern is that property owners or renters may be away on holiday when their homes become publicly listed as vacant, which "doesn't mean [the home] is available for all to come in and occupy."
Max said the same public list of vacant homes included a "rundown" home near his where he suspects an elderly woman lives.
"That property might be a slightly more attractive candidate for somebody who's looking to squat," he said.
"I don't much fancy the idea of having to defend my home against somebody — but I can see it would be all the worse if you were an older person living alone and suddenly somebody prompted by Jordan's post tried to force entry into your home."
Jordan says housing is a human right.
"If our leaders think it's okay to have homes without people while we have people without homes, then we have a moral obligation to help our brothers and sisters when our leaders fail to do so."
Jordan said in the future he would "double-check the list" to ensure lived-in properties aren't released to the public.
