nivenkos

50 ms·

631.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Real estate shouldn't be an investment. Just let people own the homes they live in. Everything else should be well-regulated perhaps even by government monopoly (e.g. first hand contracts in Sweden, or council houses in the UK). The en
632.
by nivenkos 5y ago
A second-hand contract isn't necessary black market though. Black market is when they are sub-letting illegally so you literally can't register your address - and is mainly an issue for people who want very temporary rentals, or v
633.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Fair enough. I just hope they never abolish the restrictions on second hand contracts. That has completely destroyed London, Barcelona, etc. - where your landlord might just be some investor in Zurich or New York. Also allowing for more rem
634.
by nivenkos 5y ago
I'm not a property developer, so I don't know how many flats they are forced to rent out as first-hand contracts when building new blocks. You can definitely buy apartments from new blocks though, and then you're just paying
635.
by nivenkos 5y ago
I pay the same roughly. You have to understand that Swedish salaries are far, far lower than US salaries. Like a top-end senior engineer would get $100k here.
636.
by nivenkos 5y ago
It's not the same as NYC though. Most renters in Stockholm are renting second-hand or commercial and are not covered by rent control at all. It's more akin to the council housing crisis in the UK.
637.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Citizens of the country, who are also resident in the country. You can get citizenship in Sweden in 5 years for example, so it isn't so extreme.
638.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Would abolishing them really help though? I also rent second-hand and it sucks, but I don't think things will improve just by abolishing the controls on first-hand contracts. We just need to build far, far, far more. Especially with so
639.
by nivenkos 5y ago
It sucks that you're being downvoted because people don't understand the Swedish housing system and that the main rent controls only apply to first-hand contracts. Stockholm doesn't have the same setup as New York. That said,
640.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Those queues are for public first-hand contracts. You can always rent second-hand (for up to 2 years, from a private owner), private first-hand (more expensive queues from development firms), company rentals (in some cases, your company can
641.
by nivenkos 5y ago
On the other hand, the separate controls stopping people from renting out private flats for more than 2 years has helped to stop absentee landlords, and helped to keep prices reasonable up until recent years. Property ownership should be re
642.
by nivenkos 5y ago
In Sweden it _only_ applies to first-hand contracts. So I don't think NY is a good comparison here. The main issue is that the government doesn't build enough. There are just nowhere near enough first-hand contracts, like not even
643.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Sure, but 99% of people will sell, and the price will crash.
644.
by nivenkos 5y ago
There are separate controls on being able to rent out flats for more than 2 years. So you can't really be an absentee landlord. The rent controls apply to first-hand contracts (kinda like council housing in the UK). Which is basically
645.
by nivenkos 5y ago
I live in Sweden, rent control is practically non-existent for most people now. The trick is to buy a place as soon as you can, unfortunately property prices are also going up (20% YoY!) so that's tough too. In Sweden you can't us
646.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Consider a pre-build PC, and then a Steam Deck or Xbox for gaming?
647.
by nivenkos 5y ago
I wish some governments would start shutting down the fiat exchanges.
648.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Only normal in certain companies. I left a company due to that! Being forced to take holiday during the peak super-expensive period :/
649.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Access to medicine is pretty terrible in Sweden for less critical issues. You have to pay for doctor's visits between $30-60 and often have to wait 4-8 weeks even with the fee. Almost everything requires a prescription compared to othe
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by nivenkos 5y ago
> comparing with high population countries with lots of neighbors / travel links, then they did great. Sweden _is_ one of those countries when compared to its neighbours though. Denmark, Finland and Norway have nowhere near the sam
651.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Sweden's neighbours have far less international travel, immigration, and urban population.
652.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Worth nothing that Erasmus has government support though. It has a lot of structure and effort put into it. And your home institution still gives you the degree itself, so there's no complications there either.
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by nivenkos 5y ago
But you write as though that privilege is an inalienable right? No-one is going to confiscate all gasoline vehicles, but they need to pay for the externalities in air pollution, CO2 emissions and noise pollution, etc. If the US paid $6+ a g
654.
by nivenkos 5y ago
I agree with most of the points, but why is the tone written like an edgy teenager? The worst thing IMO (in Europe) has been the assumption that lockdowns are zero-cost (never mentioned in the insane zero covid strategies), and that lockdow
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by nivenkos 5y ago
We all know that to combat climate change sacrifices will need to be made like fewer cars and smaller houses (for compact, accessible cities). I can't see the US ever being willing to make these sacrifices though. If you compare the $&
656.
by nivenkos 5y ago
Wow, US degrees aren't as expensive as I thought, it comes out pretty comparable to the UK. And then US tech salaries are 3x higher so it's still a good investment overall.
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by nivenkos 5y ago
I agree with this completely. It goes both ways too, like companies that try to keep business analysts and strategists completely separate from the database and data generation specifics.
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by nivenkos 5y ago
But I think the reason that isn't boring is because you have autonomy and, in this case literally, ownership. Being stuck writing boring SQL reports or struggling with open-ended problems so someone else makes more money isn't s
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by nivenkos 5y ago
These never apply to international clients AFAIK. At least in the UK that's the case.
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by nivenkos 5y ago
If people don't want them, then they don't pay enough (or have other issues - work safety, etc.). That's how the market works...

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