4 ms·

Who cares who's buying it? What do you have against people buying a property and then renting it out?

gambiting 5y ago
Nothing. That's not what's happening though. In a lot of places people buy houses and don't even bother renting them out. So not only buying prices are increasing, but renting prices are increasing too, because there is a group of people choking the supply for own financial gain. >>Who cares who's buying it? Well, that's certainly one way of looking at it, but another is that as a society we might want to take a step back and think what do we want out of our cities - if we collectively want affordable housing that people who live in a city can use, then allowing foreign investement funds to buy houses and then not live them is probably a bad idea.
- seoaeu 5y ago
  This problem is vastly overstated. The real issue is that there simply aren't enough homes being built for all the people who want to live in desirable cities
- warrenm 5y ago
  Why do you care what someone else does with THEIR property? If I want to own something and leave it "empty", that's my prerogative
  - gambiting 5y ago
    But your property rights are not absolute. We don't allow people to dump toxic waste or burn tyres on their land, even if the land, the tyres and the toxic waste is entirely theirs. YOUR prerogative ends somewhere. I know indidualism is a tantalising idea but we live in a society with rules. People collectively can decide(and frequently do decide) that the values important to a town, a city or an entire state are more important than your right to buy and leave property empty. There are many places which either forbid owning property entirely if you are a foreign national and don't actually live there, or impose a heavy tax on such purchases. Vacancy tax is a thing too. Basically if a city(and by that I mean people of the city and its representatives) don't want houses to be sitting around empty, there are laws that can be introduced to force people to either move in, rent or sell the place, or they can keep the place standing empty at a heavy financial penalty if they wish. Like I said earlier - your prerogative ends somewhere.
    - warrenm 5y ago
      >YOUR prerogative ends somewhere Yes - and YOUR prerogative ends at demanding I rent-out property I OWN If someone wants to own 50 houses and leave them empty, more power to them
      - machinebun 5y ago
        Well, I disagree with that, and if I can get enough people to agree with me, we can pass laws to make it unprofitable for people to buy out housing and have it sit empty. Also known as passing laws to impose a penalty on unwanted behavior. Just as GP mentioned - vacancy tax. That's how the country works. It all depends on who has more people in agreement, and can make more of a rallying cry (and has moneyed interests on their side). (I'm also in favor of land value tax as opposed to property tax to encourage productive use of land. And severely relaxing zoning restrictions)
        chii 5y ago
        > I can get enough people to agree with me, we can pass laws while that's true in this case of vacancy laws, it is not a universally applicable rule to be followed blindly. Just because a large number of people agreed with a certain set of actions, doesn't mean those set of actions are good to undertake for society. Look at how venezuela got to the place they did, via democratic elections. The a majority of the people wanted the gov't handouts, and wanted nationalization of private property by force.
        warrenm 5y ago
        >Well, I disagree with that Obviously you think that what I own is actually yours At least we all know where you stand now
        gambiting 5y ago
        Honest question - are you writing these comments from like the depth of the Amazon jungle where laws don't apply? Because pretty much any civilized country in the world has laws that govern what you can or cannot do with your own private property, even the bastion of "freedom" that is US has loads of regulations about private property. If you live in a place like that and still think that you have some absolute control over actually yours property, then sadly, you are very mistaken. So yes, I think we know where we stand now, except that it's not where you think it is.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
goodpoint 5y ago
It creates a world-wide network of exploitation of the less wealthy. Increasing world inequality drives massive foreign buying of properties that are then kept empty or rented at higher values. The staggering increase in rents across many cities in the world in the last 5 years is caused by this.

Nothing. That's not what's happening though. In a lot of places people buy houses and don't even bother renting them out. So not only buying prices are increasing, but renting prices are increasing too, because there is a group of people choking the supply for own financial gain. >>Who cares who's buying it? Well, that's certainly one way of looking at it, but another is that as a society we might want to take a step back and think what do we want out of our cities - if we collectively want affordable housing that people who live in a city can use, then allowing foreign investement funds to buy houses and then not live them is probably a bad idea.

seoaeu 5y ago
This problem is vastly overstated. The real issue is that there simply aren't enough homes being built for all the people who want to live in desirable cities
warrenm 5y ago
Why do you care what someone else does with THEIR property? If I want to own something and leave it "empty", that's my prerogative
- gambiting 5y ago
  But your property rights are not absolute. We don't allow people to dump toxic waste or burn tyres on their land, even if the land, the tyres and the toxic waste is entirely theirs. YOUR prerogative ends somewhere. I know indidualism is a tantalising idea but we live in a society with rules. People collectively can decide(and frequently do decide) that the values important to a town, a city or an entire state are more important than your right to buy and leave property empty. There are many places which either forbid owning property entirely if you are a foreign national and don't actually live there, or impose a heavy tax on such purchases. Vacancy tax is a thing too. Basically if a city(and by that I mean people of the city and its representatives) don't want houses to be sitting around empty, there are laws that can be introduced to force people to either move in, rent or sell the place, or they can keep the place standing empty at a heavy financial penalty if they wish. Like I said earlier - your prerogative ends somewhere.
  - warrenm 5y ago
    >YOUR prerogative ends somewhere Yes - and YOUR prerogative ends at demanding I rent-out property I OWN If someone wants to own 50 houses and leave them empty, more power to them
    - machinebun 5y ago
      Well, I disagree with that, and if I can get enough people to agree with me, we can pass laws to make it unprofitable for people to buy out housing and have it sit empty. Also known as passing laws to impose a penalty on unwanted behavior. Just as GP mentioned - vacancy tax. That's how the country works. It all depends on who has more people in agreement, and can make more of a rallying cry (and has moneyed interests on their side). (I'm also in favor of land value tax as opposed to property tax to encourage productive use of land. And severely relaxing zoning restrictions)
      - chii 5y ago
        > I can get enough people to agree with me, we can pass laws while that's true in this case of vacancy laws, it is not a universally applicable rule to be followed blindly. Just because a large number of people agreed with a certain set of actions, doesn't mean those set of actions are good to undertake for society. Look at how venezuela got to the place they did, via democratic elections. The a majority of the people wanted the gov't handouts, and wanted nationalization of private property by force.
      - warrenm 5y ago
        >Well, I disagree with that Obviously you think that what I own is actually yours At least we all know where you stand now
        gambiting 5y ago
        Honest question - are you writing these comments from like the depth of the Amazon jungle where laws don't apply? Because pretty much any civilized country in the world has laws that govern what you can or cannot do with your own private property, even the bastion of "freedom" that is US has loads of regulations about private property. If you live in a place like that and still think that you have some absolute control over actually yours property, then sadly, you are very mistaken. So yes, I think we know where we stand now, except that it's not where you think it is.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

goodpoint 5y ago

It creates a world-wide network of exploitation of the less wealthy. Increasing world inequality drives massive foreign buying of properties that are then kept empty or rented at higher values. The staggering increase in rents across many cities in the world in the last 5 years is caused by this.