Landlords renting out homes to asylum seekers are posting and boasting on TikTok and other social media showing off flashy ‘taxpayer-funded’ lifestyles.
Migrants awaiting decisions on their claims to stay in the UK are increasingly staying in houses of multiple accommodation, or HMOs – and people owning them are sharing tips with colleagues on making the most from the Home Office.
The government department now headed by Shabana Mahmood has outsourced housing schemes to local areas – and local landlords, examples of whom are going online to show off their own enjoyment of life in overseas places such as Dubai.
HMOs are increasingly being used by the Government, with the properties run by contractors including Serco, Clearsprings and Mears Group.
The venues described as ‘dispersal accommodation’ are intended to replace more expensive asylum hotels and are said to have been housing almost 67,000 asylum seekers by March this year.
Now HMO landlords have been seen on social media celebrating their success taking up the deals – including one telling of having ‘escaped the nine-to-five by owning £7million’ in property he says he can control from Dubai.
And a former bed and breakfast owner has shared advice with fellow aspirant landlords on making ‘totally passive’ taxpayer-funded money by letting to ‘illegal immigrants’.
Labour MP Chris Murray, who is a member of the home affairs select committee, said it ‘boiled the blood’ to see landlords doing what he described as ‘creaming profit from the asylum system so brazenly’.
Luigi Newton is a Dubai-based landlord, saying he owns 31 properties in Britain – mainly around Nottinghamshire – and leasing seven of them to Serco to house asylum seekers
Mr Newton told of having ‘escaped the nine-to-five by owning £7million’ in property he says he can control from Dubai
Luigi Newton is the Dubai-based landlord, saying he owns 31 properties in Britain – mainly around Nottinghamshire – and leasing seven of them to Serco to house asylum seekers.
He told the Times how ‘landlords are being forced to find other solutions’ because the housing in the UK was ‘favoured’ towards tenants who ‘abuse the system’.
Mr Newton, 30, has posted a sunset selfie of himself beside a pool, saying: ‘Most of my properties are social housing HMOs, so they’re fully passive – no late-night tenant calls, no endless viewings, no hassle.
‘Just government-backed income dropping in every month.’
Meanwhile, Paul Carroll advised on YouTube how the social housing market was the best option for investors, adding: ‘The ones I work with is, like, illegal immigrants’, while saying he could take a monthly £1,100 in passive income from a recent buy in Chorley, Lancashire.
The Institute for Public Policy Research has called for ‘major reform’, with Marley Morris, the thinktank’s migration and trade policy lead, saying: ‘It’s really frustrating.
‘The government is spending huge amounts of money because of the backlog and the way the asylum accommodation system works – but there are ways of running it that could actually expand the stock of social housing in the long run and have wider benefits for the community.’
The organisation wants local authorities and housing associations to receive capital subsidies enabling them to purchase housing stock available for short-term rent to the Home Office for temporary asylum use.
Paul Carroll advised on YouTube how the social housing market was the best option for investors, adding: ‘The ones I work with is, like, illegal immigrants’
A spokesperson for Serco said: ‘It is our duty to ensure all accommodation is safe and habitable and in accordance with the Decent Homes Standard.
‘Our lease provision includes the maintenance of rental properties to ensure that accommodation doesn’t fall into disrepair.
‘The rates offered to landlords are based upon the local housing rates of each individual local authority.’
Supporters of such deals say they are more ‘cost effective’ than using hotels.
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘The government inherited a broken asylum system, with tens of thousands stuck in hotels.
‘In the last year, we have cut nearly £1billion in hotel spending.
‘We are now committed to closing all asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament, and are exploring large, Ministry of Defence sites.’
Officials indicated the number of asylum seekers in hotels dropped by almost 6,000 in the first three months of 2025, down 15 per cent from last December.
Luigi Newton told the Times how ‘landlords are being forced to find other solutions’ because the housing in the UK was ‘favoured’ towards tenants who ‘abuse the system’
Mr Newton added: ‘Most of my properties are social housing HMOs, so they’re fully passive – no late-night tenant calls, no endless viewings, no hassle’
Paul Carroll has said online how he could take a monthly £1,100 in passive income from a recent buy in Chorley, Lancashire
The cost of hotels was put at £5.77million per day in 2024-25, a reduction compared to a daily £8.3million the previous year.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government is under pressure for its record on migrants especially those involved in small boat crossings – with its ‘one in, one out’ policy sending back far fewer numbers to France as those continuing to cross the Channel.
Officials have nevertheless pointed to the removal of 35,000 individuals with no legal right to remain in the UK in its first year.
This is said to include almost 5,200 foreign national offenders, 14 per cent more than during the same period in the previous year.
The Daily Mail has contacted Luigi Newton, Paul Carroll and Clearsprings for comment.
