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Coveted land is a limited resource and will always be an asset to some degree. It’s value depends on social drivers that make the area worth living in. Policy
by riazrizvi 5y ago
Coveted land is a limited resource and will always be an asset to some degree. It’s value depends on social drivers that make the area worth living in.
Policy though can help prevent the asset price from being driven further by speculative investors, using tax penalties that heavily favor owner occupiers. It’s difficult to get right because there’s an argument to allow investors to participate, as it drives investment and effort into new house building.
But right now, 0% rates for businesses has flowed into large scale purchases of residential homes by Zillow, Redfin and others, who used their data positioning to capitalize on the flight to the suburbs due to Covid. That is what has devastated affordability. There’s no broad social benefit there, I hope it stops.
- seoaeu 5y agoYou really think that owner occupiers haven't pushed for policies that inflate the value of their investments at the cost of young people and renters? Having been to community meetings about creating more housing in my area, I'll tell you that there's plenty of people who want to constrain the housing supply who are not hedge fund lobbyists...
- riazrizvi 5y agoActually I do realize that. The policy of tax advantaging owner-occupiers is to benefit non-owners who want to own a home. Of course many of them, once they own a home, will vote to pull the drawbridge up once they have refuge for themselves to further secure their position regardless of the impact to others. That's typical of earthly creatures that favor the natural law of narrow self-interest.