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In the UK, hilariously we've gone the other way by ramping up regulations on landlords to the extent that tons are simply exiting the market. To name a few: ma
by throwaway22032 2y ago
In the UK, hilariously we've gone the other way by ramping up regulations on landlords to the extent that tons are simply exiting the market.
To name a few: making evictions much harder; changing tax law so that mortgage interest isn't fully allowable; aggressive energy efficiency requirements that I don't even see as worth it as an owner occupier; HMO regulations preventing students etc sharing a house; the list goes on.
All of this at a time in which mortgage interest rates (generally only fixed for a few years in the UK) have quadrupled and net immigration is going gangbusters.
There is a pervasive mindset that landlords should be "punished". Well, they have been, and the result is that they're leaving the market - if you can't afford to buy, you're now competing against far more people in a supply restricted market.
Poverty mindset at its' finest.
- baggy_trough 2y agoCalifornia is similar. Its progressive caucus does everything possible to make it risky and expensive to be a landlord, then acts puzzled when rents go up and tenants have a hard time finding a place.
- ryandrake 2y agoYea, they're disincentivizing the wrong thing. It should be difficult and expensive to own multiple properties, regardless of whether or not you are renting them out. And it should be progressively (quadratically) more difficult and expensive to own the next property, the more properties you already own. That's the evil here: Single entities owning hundreds of properties for the purpose of value extraction rather than to live in.
- throwaway22032 2y agoYou're falling into the same trap. Doing that would mean indirectly that renting out properties should be disincentivised. Do that and the market price for rentals will increase as no-one wants to do it. The only rentals on the market will then be people who temporarily move, until they sell up, but even that will dry up as they won't be able to find anywhere to rent on the other side. You don't want a world in which renting is twice (or more) as expensive as buying.
- ryandrake 2y agoWe should disincentivize landlording and renting by both 1. making it harder to landlord and 2. reducing/eliminating the barriers that drive people to rent: home prices, down payments, closing costs and fees, the real estate market itself being illiquid, the variable nature of home-related expenses. If it was as easy and cheap to own as it is to rent, and if homeowners weren't so locked into their owned homes, then there would be little reason to rent.
- throwaway22032 2y agoThat's not a world I want to live in as it would have made it impossible for me to study at University, impossible for me to start my career, impossible for me to leave my hometown, and many other things. I think you're blinded by hate for wealth.
- HDThoreaun 2y agoshit take. The transaction costs in the housing market alone are reason enough to rent if you have no plans to stay long term.
- baggy_trough 2y agoIt is not evil to own even hundreds of properties for the purpose of renting them out at market rates. It is a good that should be celebrated.