51–60 of 216 posts
And... this is what happens when you don't tax foreign cash infusions. For those who think we should get rid of taxes on cash repatriations - this is likely an outcome.
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There is. It's full. (Most of the towns in the southeast of England are dominated by commuters to London)
What about the other directions? How many people commute from Birmingham, for example? It's only 126 miles away? That's a 30 commute sometime this century. It's really just a question of when.
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People dumping hundreds of millions into the market just to hide it from external forces aren't interested in being landlords.
They don't want to make a few percent on their capital?
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I feel like there is a massive opportunity to be had here from managing and renting out these places.
I'm pretty sure foreign oligarchs aren't interested in AirBnB-style arrangements.
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I think his point is that if commutes were quicker then regular people could move away from the city but still work there. Billionaires could still sell real estate to each other then without hurting lower incomes.
I like living in the city. I would prefer to live in one. Denver housing isn't so crazy yet that I can't afford to live here, but it's pretty close. I make a pretty damn good salary and would struggle finding a house that doesn't require significant rennovation in the city. Yes, I could move to suburbia - I could commute slightly further, etc, etc. I would prefer not to. I would prefer that my neighbors are people an…
275 sq. ft. with "a half refrigerator, 2 built-in electric burners, and a microwave oven"
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I believe this is to not draw attention to the property. There was a Planet Money podcast a while ago about how high-end real estate is being used by foreigners to launder money. If the FBI catches wind, they have tools to seize the property and remunerate the proceeds. I'm guessing that renting the property means involving the IRS and potentially their foreign counterparts in the person's home country, both of which…
This has nothing to do with the FBI or IRS; it's in London. The UK's territories include several actual tax havens (the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Cayman etc). Many tens of thousands of houses are owned by corporations registered in an offshore tax haven. There's a map of British property registered in a tax haven: http://www.private-eye.co.uk/registry
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This is why it should go viral. Wealthy individuals/ buying houses in droves to sit empty does not benefit anyone in the long run. What happens when the bubble pops?
What happens until the bubble pops I think is the question. To quote the OA... "In the evenings an eerie stillness settles on [the area]. That’s because these new owners are so rich in both money and global property that their London addresses frequently sit empty, functioning more as dust-sheeted deposit boxes rather than actual homes." This is not why we have cities. We have cities to allow interaction. Look where…
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I mean, it's a pretty common sentiment around these parts. (Replace "London" with "Bay Area") (It's a very rare person who ever thinks of themselves as "rich enough." Most billionaires don't)
How many billionaires do you personally know?
If only there was a way to make living within a city less important. There must be some way to move large numbers of people over "great distances" (50-100 miles) in a more commutable time.
E.g. between Stevenage (town North of London) and Kings Cross in the UK, its about 30 miles. Trains do that in 24 minutes. But to then go the final 1-to-3 miles to your central London Office might take another 25-30 minutes - the tube is good, but only if your destination is near a station, buses are slower than walking due to them stopping every 100m, and driving/taxis are obviously not an option due to gridlock.
You can walk it of course, but it will be slower than expected due to waiting to cross streets etc, plus of course it might be raining one day, or 90% humidity @ 25c the next (neither are great for getting to work in a comfortable state!).
For me, the solution appears to be get a job near the station, or perhaps buy one of those electric unicycles.