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That assumes there are market incentives to actually fill the housing that is built. What about when buildings of hundreds of luxury condos are built and they j

That assumes there are market incentives to actually fill the housing that is built. What about when buildings of hundreds of luxury condos are built and they just sit empty, either owned by disinterested "investors" or unwilling to be sold for the market-directed price? Someone who studied this in Toronto by overlaying nighttime photos to find units where the lights are literally never on: https://www.movesmartly.com/articles/condo-units-sitting-empty-in-toronto https://www.movesmartly.com/articles/condo-units-sitting-emp...

tylerhou 5y ago
That blogpost you cited says that there is a 5% vacancy rate. That's well within the normal range. So I don't see how it supports your argument. https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/musne8/disproving_the_vacant_homes_myth/ https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/musne8/dispro...
- mikepurvis 5y ago
  Fair— I kind of picked one at random. Obviously part of the point of that dude's effort is that this is a difficult thing to get numbers on. Here's some other coverage around responses to a planned vacant unit tax: https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2021/02/real-estate-investors-toronto-sell-vacant-home-tax/ https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2021/02/real-esta...
ajmurmann 5y ago
If you build more prices will come down and these "investments" will become nonviable.
- mikepurvis 5y ago
  Maybe, but that is difficult when a) the "investors" are split between connected, powerful people who really don't want to see their investments go negative; and families just getting started who could be utterly ruined by an underwater mortgage, and b) the fact that the housing situation is a crisis now; there isn't time to faff around and hope that ten to twenty years the invisible hand of the market does this or that.
imtringued 5y ago
Raise capital gains taxes on land. If they don't sell or rent it's their loss.

tylerhou 5y ago

That blogpost you cited says that there is a 5% vacancy rate. That's well within the normal range. So I don't see how it supports your argument. https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/musne8/disproving_the_vacant_homes_myth/ https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/comments/musne8/dispro...

mikepurvis 5y ago
Fair— I kind of picked one at random. Obviously part of the point of that dude's effort is that this is a difficult thing to get numbers on. Here's some other coverage around responses to a planned vacant unit tax: https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2021/02/real-estate-investors-toronto-sell-vacant-home-tax/ https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2021/02/real-esta...

ajmurmann 5y ago

If you build more prices will come down and these "investments" will become nonviable.

mikepurvis 5y ago
Maybe, but that is difficult when a) the "investors" are split between connected, powerful people who really don't want to see their investments go negative; and families just getting started who could be utterly ruined by an underwater mortgage, and b) the fact that the housing situation is a crisis now; there isn't time to faff around and hope that ten to twenty years the invisible hand of the market does this or that.

imtringued 5y ago

Raise capital gains taxes on land. If they don't sell or rent it's their loss.