Activists in Melbourne have produced a documentary which claims property speculators have locked up 46,220 empty homes in metropolitan Melbourne.

The housing campaign group Earthsharing Australia says in Real Estate 4 Ransom that 4.95 per cent of the city’s potential housing stock is unoccupied — double what the Real Estate Institute claims is the vacancy rate.

Earthsharing director Karl Fitzgerald says the documentary was ultimately an argument in favour of the Henry Review’s proposals for land tax.

Earthsharing’s methodology was criticised by some, such as by the Melbourne Urbanist blog as ‘not very robust’, and questioning whether these were properties that were being withheld from the rental market.

Real Estate 4 Ransom Official Trailer from Real Estate 4 Ransom on Vimeo.