4 ms·

I agree with you, just check out this map of all the leeches: http://insideairbnb.com/montreal/?neighbourhood=C%C3%B4te-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Gr%C3%A2ce&fil

I agree with you, just check out this map of all the leeches: http://insideairbnb.com/montreal/?neighbourhood=C%C3%B4te-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Gr%C3%A2ce&filterEntireHomes=false&filterHighlyAvailable=false&filterRecentReviews=false&filterMultiListings=false#availability http://insideairbnb.com/montreal/?neighbourhood=C%C3%B4te-de... And this is not even central. Hopefully they all get their fingers badly burned when rates rise, this tax comes in and equity drops. I'm very disappointed to hear this. Quebec is one of the last places in the Western world where rentiers have a hard time. Also for people saying these are "for a few weekends". Many AirBnb are not "a few weekends" they are a second home bought / mortgaged for the express purpose of permanently letting in out on airbnb and not paying tax. Here you go: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-airbnb-law-not-effective-2017-1.4135041 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-airbnb-law-not...

cgmg 9y ago
You think the solution to high rent prices is to reduce the number of renters and restrict the supply of properties available for rent? Someone wasn't paying attention in econ class.
- branchless 9y ago
  Econ 101 sucks. But you contradict yourself as econ 101 always states supply and demand. AirBnb is for short-term rentals only. It does not target people in Montreal looking for 12 month rolling tenancies. But it does reduce supply as landlords move from supplying 12 month places to airbnb. If we made life harder for airbnb supply would go up of rentals for families. Or landlords would sell up reducing prices and allowing families who presently rent to buy. Yes there are some people on hacker news who just want to get their 200k and not have to worry about commitment. I don't care about them, they can sort themselves out. I want access for families to local schools. The people offering this "service" just want to make a quick buck for very little work. They bring nothing to the community and make life harder for many families.
  - cgmg 9y ago
    > Econ 101 sucks. ? > But you contradict yourself as econ 101 always states supply and demand. Your sentence is incomprehensible. Please explain how I'm contradicting myself. > AirBnb is for short-term rentals only. It does not target people in Montreal looking for 12 month rolling tenancies. But it does reduce supply as landlords move from supplying 12 month places to airbnb. If we made life harder for airbnb supply would go up of rentals for families. Or landlords would sell up reducing prices and allowing families who presently rent to buy. Why should we favor 12-month rentees at the expense of the rest of society, to the point of forcing everyone else out? > They bring nothing to the community and make life harder for many families. I know right? They've brought absolutely nothing of value to the millions of customers who use their service. That's why they keep using it, of course!
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
cgmg 9y ago
There's a great irony in calling renters "leeches" while trying to forcibly interfere between them and their customers to get a bigger cut of the transaction.
- branchless 9y ago
  They are leeches and we should tax rentiers. Tax them out of existence. Or as near as we can get. As Keynes said the euthanasia of the rentier, the functionless "investor" is to be welcomed. edit: to the poster below Many airbnb are not people "renting on a weekend when they go on holiday". It's a mini hotel. The former I don't mind, the latter should be taxed out of existence. Your comment about groceries is dire. Production of food is elastic. Production of land is not. Taxing those who simply try to be middle men to be, yes, a rentier is a good thing. Not to take a cut but to get rid of them. So many bad comments on HN that fail to understand elasticity and how prices are set. I'm off.
  - cgmg 9y ago
    Uh... Keynes never said we should tax people who rent their homes out of existence. That idea is quite nonsensical and counterproductive from an economic point of view. It's like saying we should tax groceries out of existence to reduce food prices.
    - mark_edward 9y ago
      Keynes did actually say the rentier class should be liquidated. The landlord is the ideal rentier. A grocer is not necessarily a rentier, they add value by providing a service. Rental income is purely a privilege of ownership, received due to a granted title, similar to patent and copyright.
      - branchless 9y ago
        It's okay he's writing on hacker news, where economics goes to die.
      - 9y ago

cgmg 9y ago

You think the solution to high rent prices is to reduce the number of renters and restrict the supply of properties available for rent? Someone wasn't paying attention in econ class.

branchless 9y ago
Econ 101 sucks. But you contradict yourself as econ 101 always states supply and demand. AirBnb is for short-term rentals only. It does not target people in Montreal looking for 12 month rolling tenancies. But it does reduce supply as landlords move from supplying 12 month places to airbnb. If we made life harder for airbnb supply would go up of rentals for families. Or landlords would sell up reducing prices and allowing families who presently rent to buy. Yes there are some people on hacker news who just want to get their 200k and not have to worry about commitment. I don't care about them, they can sort themselves out. I want access for families to local schools. The people offering this "service" just want to make a quick buck for very little work. They bring nothing to the community and make life harder for many families.
- cgmg 9y ago
  > Econ 101 sucks. ? > But you contradict yourself as econ 101 always states supply and demand. Your sentence is incomprehensible. Please explain how I'm contradicting myself. > AirBnb is for short-term rentals only. It does not target people in Montreal looking for 12 month rolling tenancies. But it does reduce supply as landlords move from supplying 12 month places to airbnb. If we made life harder for airbnb supply would go up of rentals for families. Or landlords would sell up reducing prices and allowing families who presently rent to buy. Why should we favor 12-month rentees at the expense of the rest of society, to the point of forcing everyone else out? > They bring nothing to the community and make life harder for many families. I know right? They've brought absolutely nothing of value to the millions of customers who use their service. That's why they keep using it, of course!
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

cgmg 9y ago

There's a great irony in calling renters "leeches" while trying to forcibly interfere between them and their customers to get a bigger cut of the transaction.

branchless 9y ago
They are leeches and we should tax rentiers. Tax them out of existence. Or as near as we can get. As Keynes said the euthanasia of the rentier, the functionless "investor" is to be welcomed. edit: to the poster below Many airbnb are not people "renting on a weekend when they go on holiday". It's a mini hotel. The former I don't mind, the latter should be taxed out of existence. Your comment about groceries is dire. Production of food is elastic. Production of land is not. Taxing those who simply try to be middle men to be, yes, a rentier is a good thing. Not to take a cut but to get rid of them. So many bad comments on HN that fail to understand elasticity and how prices are set. I'm off.
- cgmg 9y ago
  Uh... Keynes never said we should tax people who rent their homes out of existence. That idea is quite nonsensical and counterproductive from an economic point of view. It's like saying we should tax groceries out of existence to reduce food prices.
  - mark_edward 9y ago
    Keynes did actually say the rentier class should be liquidated. The landlord is the ideal rentier. A grocer is not necessarily a rentier, they add value by providing a service. Rental income is purely a privilege of ownership, received due to a granted title, similar to patent and copyright.
    - branchless 9y ago
      It's okay he's writing on hacker news, where economics goes to die.
    - 9y ago