A German council has started confiscating privately-owned apartments to help ease an acute housing shortage made worse by migrants. The houses, located in the central Hamm district, will now be renovated and rented out to tenants of the city's choosing against the will of the owner, who will be billed for the work which is estimated to cost a five-figure sum. Move is the first time residential buildings have been seized in Germany. Germany has accepted around 1.8million migrants and refugees over the past two years,