A reminder: rent is the purest form of supply/demand in the housing market. Nobody rents multiple units to sit on them the way people do to buy them. If prices are going up, that means vacancy is low and there just aren’t enough units to rent. Landlords hiking prices are hiking prices because somebody will pay that higher price.
The solution has to involve either building a crapload more units, or having less people who need housing (as always, Malthusians are invited to go first). Anybody who is proposing other approaches to this problem is either a con-man or an idiot. You cannot redistribute your way out of a shortage.
I honestly try to be I’m That Guy but I am getting tired of the swarm of downvotes from “well this is dumb we just need to do the simpler thing and abolish capitalism” contingent.
There are more empty buildings than homeless people
This is a myth. What “empty building” studies usually cover is buildings that have no usual occupant. That includes things like student houses where the occupants still have a “home address”.
A reminder: rent is the purest form of supply/demand in the housing market. Nobody rents multiple units to sit on them the way people do to buy them. If prices are going up, that means vacancy is low and there just aren’t enough units to rent. Landlords hiking prices are hiking prices because somebody will pay that higher price.
The solution has to involve either building a crapload more units, or having less people who need housing (as always, Malthusians are invited to go first). Anybody who is proposing other approaches to this problem is either a con-man or an idiot. You cannot redistribute your way out of a shortage.
I need you in every housing thread I post here.
I honestly try to be I’m That Guy but I am getting tired of the swarm of downvotes from “well this is dumb we just need to do the simpler thing and abolish capitalism” contingent.
Offer and demand should be taught in high schools.
There are more empty buildings than homeless people. There are “investment properties” sitting empty all over.
The problem is the greed of the parasitic landlord class.
This is a myth. What “empty building” studies usually cover is buildings that have no usual occupant. That includes things like student houses where the occupants still have a “home address”.
30% of Canadians are domestic speculators. This isn’t a myth, it’s a fact.
Landlords are still parasites.