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I live in an apartment unit in a 25 story tower. I rent it from a corporation that owns it. Would that still be allowed in your plan? Would the restrictions on

I live in an apartment unit in a 25 story tower. I rent it from a corporation that owns it. Would that still be allowed in your plan? Would the restrictions on who can own housing only apply to single family homes?

ehnto 4y ago
Apartments are an interesting example, but ultimately no different to individual homes. The unit being inside a larger building only changes your agreements with fellow apartment owners. As a renter you aren't really concerned with any of that. When a developer builds a tower, they sell all the units to individuals or companies. In my variant, companies couldn't own them and so only individuals could buy the apartments. The dream would be that individual ownership is cheaper, but maybe if the prices were lower building towers wouldn't be lucrative to developers. I am sure there are a bunch of edge cases like that.
- mcculley 4y ago
  One of the reasons that I currently rent an apartment instead of owning a single family home is that I want someone else to handle maintenance. Maintenance issues involve more than just "agreements with fellow apartment owners". There are common areas, common equipment such as elevators, trash chute, pool, gym, and common services such as security guards, maintenance staff, and concierge. In condos, this is managed by the homeowners association. Proposing that apartment buildings such not be owned by corporations, but instead that only condominiums should exist, with associated homeowners associations, is to propose a less liquid housing market. I have owned single family homes and condos and rented apartments and condos. There are good reasons for all of these choices. Those proposing to allow fewer choices are not convincing me that they have thought it through.
  - quartesixte 4y ago
    Perhaps that homeowners association stays as the developer, and we write laws and regulations that keep the developer beholden to certain standards of maintenance and safe living standards. Perhaps competition will arise between developers who advertise certain levels of amenities and service. The basic minimum can be run by a government housing corporation that sets the baseline standard of living for all other developers to measure themselves against. The possibilities here are endless. We don't have to keep living the way we do in the USA.
    - mcculley 4y ago
      I agree that new ways of doing things are possible. I’m not convinced that anyone is helped by limiting options for who can own a building.
- quartesixte 4y ago
  We could structure taxes, regulatory fees, and the like to make it so that building + selling + maintaining towers > owning the tower + renting it out. Large buildings require lots of maintenance and specialized management skills. Laws can be updated so that individual apartment owners have similar rights to SFH owners who own both land and structure (a 3D model of land ownership?) Developers could be compelled to provide maintenance service but allowed to collect a small fee in exchange. Society is a construct, so we can really just construct this however which way we want. Only our imaginations limit us.

ehnto 4y ago

Apartments are an interesting example, but ultimately no different to individual homes. The unit being inside a larger building only changes your agreements with fellow apartment owners. As a renter you aren't really concerned with any of that. When a developer builds a tower, they sell all the units to individuals or companies. In my variant, companies couldn't own them and so only individuals could buy the apartments. The dream would be that individual ownership is cheaper, but maybe if the prices were lower building towers wouldn't be lucrative to developers. I am sure there are a bunch of edge cases like that.

mcculley 4y ago
One of the reasons that I currently rent an apartment instead of owning a single family home is that I want someone else to handle maintenance. Maintenance issues involve more than just "agreements with fellow apartment owners". There are common areas, common equipment such as elevators, trash chute, pool, gym, and common services such as security guards, maintenance staff, and concierge. In condos, this is managed by the homeowners association. Proposing that apartment buildings such not be owned by corporations, but instead that only condominiums should exist, with associated homeowners associations, is to propose a less liquid housing market. I have owned single family homes and condos and rented apartments and condos. There are good reasons for all of these choices. Those proposing to allow fewer choices are not convincing me that they have thought it through.
- quartesixte 4y ago
  Perhaps that homeowners association stays as the developer, and we write laws and regulations that keep the developer beholden to certain standards of maintenance and safe living standards. Perhaps competition will arise between developers who advertise certain levels of amenities and service. The basic minimum can be run by a government housing corporation that sets the baseline standard of living for all other developers to measure themselves against. The possibilities here are endless. We don't have to keep living the way we do in the USA.
  - mcculley 4y ago
    I agree that new ways of doing things are possible. I’m not convinced that anyone is helped by limiting options for who can own a building.
quartesixte 4y ago
We could structure taxes, regulatory fees, and the like to make it so that building + selling + maintaining towers > owning the tower + renting it out. Large buildings require lots of maintenance and specialized management skills. Laws can be updated so that individual apartment owners have similar rights to SFH owners who own both land and structure (a 3D model of land ownership?) Developers could be compelled to provide maintenance service but allowed to collect a small fee in exchange. Society is a construct, so we can really just construct this however which way we want. Only our imaginations limit us.