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Or, private equity buys up all the homes and rents them or AirBNBs them (or both) and then uses their massive asset equity to buy more homes. This natural press

Or, private equity buys up all the homes and rents them or AirBNBs them (or both) and then uses their massive asset equity to buy more homes. This natural pressure raises the prices, and thus their asset value which lets them acquire more and more. Build more houses? Feed the beast. FIRST prevent housing investment in all forms. Then build more homes.

shiroiushi 2y ago
Sorry, economics don't work that way. If you build more houses, and build them more densely, it increases the supply. If corporations buy them up, they're still competing with each other and won't be able to raise the prices too much. They're only able to keep raising prices because supply is limited, so stop limiting supply. You don't need to ban housing investment. We don't have any such laws here in Japan. The only reason they're able to treat housing as an investment in other places is because of a lack of supply. Here, there's lots of supply, because the laws don't forbid development the way they do everywhere else. There, housing values increase over time because of the shortage. Here, housing values decrease over time: buying a house is never a lucrative investment, just a way to avoid rent increases (or having to move), to have control over your own home, because you think the land might increase in value (maybe they're going to build a new subway station nearby in 10 years), etc.
- stephenr 2y ago
  > they're still competing with each other and won't be able to raise the prices too much. That only works if (a) there are multiple companies rather than one doing this and (b) they are operating independently and (c) there is a surplus of housing available; Take away any of those scenarios and there is not real competition, and thus they charge what they want.
  - kelnos 2y ago
    > there is a surplus of housing available That's the entire point. You need to satisfy demand. If you have more demand than supply, you are always going to have housing unaffordability. > Take away any of those scenarios... Not really. Even if there's only one company that owns a lot of the housing stock, they can't just set prices wherever they want. People still have the choice not to live there, if the pricing isn't to their liking. And if there's equilibrium, or a surplus of housing, landlords have to meet renters on price. (Certainly the ideal is that you have many many landlords, rather than just one, of course.)
- deleted 2y ago
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shiroiushi 2y ago

Sorry, economics don't work that way. If you build more houses, and build them more densely, it increases the supply. If corporations buy them up, they're still competing with each other and won't be able to raise the prices too much. They're only able to keep raising prices because supply is limited, so stop limiting supply. You don't need to ban housing investment. We don't have any such laws here in Japan. The only reason they're able to treat housing as an investment in other places is because of a lack of supply. Here, there's lots of supply, because the laws don't forbid development the way they do everywhere else. There, housing values increase over time because of the shortage. Here, housing values decrease over time: buying a house is never a lucrative investment, just a way to avoid rent increases (or having to move), to have control over your own home, because you think the land might increase in value (maybe they're going to build a new subway station nearby in 10 years), etc.

stephenr 2y ago
> they're still competing with each other and won't be able to raise the prices too much. That only works if (a) there are multiple companies rather than one doing this and (b) they are operating independently and (c) there is a surplus of housing available; Take away any of those scenarios and there is not real competition, and thus they charge what they want.
- kelnos 2y ago
  > there is a surplus of housing available That's the entire point. You need to satisfy demand. If you have more demand than supply, you are always going to have housing unaffordability. > Take away any of those scenarios... Not really. Even if there's only one company that owns a lot of the housing stock, they can't just set prices wherever they want. People still have the choice not to live there, if the pricing isn't to their liking. And if there's equilibrium, or a surplus of housing, landlords have to meet renters on price. (Certainly the ideal is that you have many many landlords, rather than just one, of course.)
deleted 2y ago
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