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Speculators as an aggregate voting block want less supply. This might seem counter intuitive since it is simultaneously true that a new development is an invest

Speculators as an aggregate voting block want less supply. This might seem counter intuitive since it is simultaneously true that a new development is an investment opportunity. What we need is more units. The affordability to non-speculators follows from that, which is just supply and demand playing out. If you double supply via high rise apartments, the value is guaranteed to drop significantly. Increasing supply by removing regulations around apartment construction also reduces the incentive to buy to invest. Who would want to invest when the supply is liable to increase?

ratww 5y ago
That's a fine opinion, but I and others in Berlin would also prefer not having to have high rises just because there are speculators. The issue in Berlin is not really lack of units, this is not San Francisco. The problem here is purely the rampant speculation. I don't follow the same economical dogmas you do. In my opinion it's not about supply or demand, but purely about a certain group of investors fucking up everyone lives. I'd prefer to attack this problem head-on rather than having bandaids that involve destroying Tempelhofer Feld or removing the Kleingarten, like other people suggested.
- fighterpilot 5y ago
  And this is why house prices are high in every urban centre. We see this same unexpected alliance everywhere between the environmental left that wants to preserve as much greenery as possibly via zoning rules, and the crony right who just wants to cynically increase property prices. The end result is a lot of human suffering and nothing to show for it. Property investors really aren't the root problem because they lease the property back onto the market and that supply doesn't vanish. This is not dogma. Quite the opposite. The impact of supply caps due to zoning has been studied to death by economists. The "preserve greenery" perspective is just a highly privileged one and a false choice/false dilemma to boot. You can build vertically without sacrificing greenery or destroying your parks and bushland. Why not just do that and solve the entire problem? Oh wait that is illegal...
  - ratww 5y ago
    Nobody said "property investors who lease back" are a problem anywhere... The problem is merely a small group of entities with too much purchase power distorting the market and making the city worse for everyone. Maybe this is something that your favourite branch of economics likes to pretend doesn't exist, but, again, different people have different opinions.

ratww 5y ago

That's a fine opinion, but I and others in Berlin would also prefer not having to have high rises just because there are speculators. The issue in Berlin is not really lack of units, this is not San Francisco. The problem here is purely the rampant speculation. I don't follow the same economical dogmas you do. In my opinion it's not about supply or demand, but purely about a certain group of investors fucking up everyone lives. I'd prefer to attack this problem head-on rather than having bandaids that involve destroying Tempelhofer Feld or removing the Kleingarten, like other people suggested.

fighterpilot 5y ago
And this is why house prices are high in every urban centre. We see this same unexpected alliance everywhere between the environmental left that wants to preserve as much greenery as possibly via zoning rules, and the crony right who just wants to cynically increase property prices. The end result is a lot of human suffering and nothing to show for it. Property investors really aren't the root problem because they lease the property back onto the market and that supply doesn't vanish. This is not dogma. Quite the opposite. The impact of supply caps due to zoning has been studied to death by economists. The "preserve greenery" perspective is just a highly privileged one and a false choice/false dilemma to boot. You can build vertically without sacrificing greenery or destroying your parks and bushland. Why not just do that and solve the entire problem? Oh wait that is illegal...
- ratww 5y ago
  Nobody said "property investors who lease back" are a problem anywhere... The problem is merely a small group of entities with too much purchase power distorting the market and making the city worse for everyone. Maybe this is something that your favourite branch of economics likes to pretend doesn't exist, but, again, different people have different opinions.