4 ms·
What if an investment fund wanted to buy and hold 20 apartments in a building? That should be illegal in and of itself. People can't afford apartments because
by seiji 12y ago
What if an investment fund wanted to buy and hold 20 apartments in a building?
That should be illegal in and of itself. People can't afford apartments because "investors" have bought them all to jack up the prices as rent instead of property. If we had true market-clearing prices for ownership (instead of "the rich get richer and use more money to buy more property to get more money to buy more property"), everybody could be less rentfucked.
It's "excessive landlord" syndrome. Why should one guy be allowed to own 40 apartment buildings full of residents who have lived there 20 years? Shouldn't they own their own living conditions instead of being locked into capitalist "I got here 3 years before you, now I own everything, and you are my source of income forever" mindsets?
- refurb 12y agoNot sure i understand. Whether an individual buys a home or an investor buys 20, it doesn't change the price.
- S4M 12y agoI'm not Seiji, but I think he wants to make illegal for both investment companies and private individual to own more than a certain number of apartments, in order to prevent real estate price to go up and up, to which I wholeheartedly agree.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- kyllo 12y agoYes it does make a difference because the wealthy individuals who own many units can drive up the price by restricting supply. They can influence zoning laws and block new high-density construction to protect their profits.
- refurb 12y agoThat still doesn't make sense. If you have no one living in an investment unit you're losing money. Could an owner of manu units increase pricing by not renting/selling at market rates? Sure but they'd be losing money.
- mercer 12y agoAnd yet it happens all the time. There are many units in my city in very desirable locations that have been empty for a long time. Often they do temporarily allow people to live there ('anti-squat'), but they can be kicked out at a month's notice and have basically no rights. What makes this so frustrating is that anyone moving to the city has to either pay exorbitant amounts of money for tiny apartments or rooms, or live far out of the center.
- cynicalkane 12y agoIn most cities renters are people who can't or won't plausibly finance the unit themselves. Units are expensive and worth a lot.