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Berlin Builds Ideas to Stage a Housing Revolution

citylab.com

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Re: Berlin Builds Ideas to Stage a Housing Revolution

#21

Post by reallydontask »

Cypher wrote: post #2

Nope, because they'll just setup a load of shell companies.

I'm not saying that this would work but as a thought experiment:

Any entity that buys a house zoned as residential has to pay a tax of 100% of the value of the house.

Private citizens get an exemption on this tax, if their main residence of which you can only have one, and are 18 or older.

CGT is 100% (Deductions for home improvements could be added)

The municipality builds affordable housing

The tax would probably need to be gradually increased as it would likely cause a bit of crash on the housing market, say over 10 years.

There is an obvious lack of political will to carry out such a measure and I'm sure that there are loads of unintended consequences

Re: Berlin Builds Ideas to Stage a Housing Revolution

#22

Post by scotty79 »

moccachino wrote: post #13

There is no need to put a hard limit, just an effective limit by having a general wealth tax. Money flows to where money already is, that's inevitable in a capitalist market economy. There's no need to change that, but progressively bigger piles of wealth should be progressively higher taxed to keep them in check, thus ensuring a competitive market. Edit: I guess I should have known mentioning wealth tax would get pe…

Taxing general wealth would be enough if you just wanted money. But what you want is rather change in the behaviour of the wealthy. You want them to take away their money out of real estate market so that it does not inflate the prices. You could achieve that through progressive real estate tax. This would make holding and renting large amounts of real estate less profitable in comparison to other things rich invest their money into. They would sell so prices would drop and individual ownership would rise.

Re: Berlin Builds Ideas to Stage a Housing Revolution

#23

Post by Cthulhu_ »

mruts wrote: post #20
adrianN wrote: post #9

The truth is that rents in Berlin are exceptionally cheap compared to other major cities. Try finding a flat in London or Paris for The only way to keep rents this low in the face of rising demand is public housing that is rented out below market rates to low income tenants, or via a lottery.

Or just a have a free market and abolish building codes.

Have a new Kowloon be built?

Re: Berlin Builds Ideas to Stage a Housing Revolution

#25

Post by onion2k »

choeger wrote: post #17

Everyone and their cat wants to live as close as humanly possible to the hip center of the hip city. But of course, they literally do not want to pay the price. Why is there a vegan bakery specialized in Afghan Bagel[1] around the corner? Because there are enough hip, young professionals to pay for even the most unlikely specialty. Business can afford to cater to the most extraordinary taste, but only because there a…

Everyone and their cat wants to live as close as humanly possible to the hip center of the hip city.

I want to live as far from that place as possible.

Re: Berlin Builds Ideas to Stage a Housing Revolution

#26

Post by shadowbannedtoo »

1. Yes--there should be a limit on how much housing a landlord should own. 2. There should be a limit on what their spawn own. (We have the technology. Why not monitor where the money flows?) 3. Foreigners should not be allowed to buy own land. 4. I'm considering deleting this because most of you believe, one day; you will be the land barron. 99.99% of you will just be renters, or worse. The egos of Americans is what will do us all in. This is not your daddy's America. The rich have us all in checkmate.

Re: Berlin Builds Ideas to Stage a Housing Revolution

#27

Post by adrianN »

mruts wrote: post #20
adrianN wrote: post #9

The truth is that rents in Berlin are exceptionally cheap compared to other major cities. Try finding a flat in London or Paris for The only way to keep rents this low in the face of rising demand is public housing that is rented out below market rates to low income tenants, or via a lottery.

Or just a have a free market and abolish building codes.

Putting the reasons behind building codes aside, the free market doesn't favor social mixing. Profits are maximized by enclaves for the rich and undesirables are pushed out of the city center. I think it's quite important for people of different social classes to live in close proximity and for their children to play together and go to the same schools.

Re: Berlin Builds Ideas to Stage a Housing Revolution

#28

Post by onion2k »

mruts wrote: post #20
adrianN wrote: post #9

The truth is that rents in Berlin are exceptionally cheap compared to other major cities. Try finding a flat in London or Paris for The only way to keep rents this low in the face of rising demand is public housing that is rented out below market rates to low income tenants, or via a lottery.

Or just a have a free market and abolish building codes.

Increasing the housing supply isn't working. Wealthy landlords can afford buy new houses at a good price for the builder, and then the landlord rents them out at the current rental price, so rental prices don't go down and people can't afford to compete with the prices landlords are willing to pay for houses which is keeping house prices inflated.

Unless something significant happens to regulate the housing market we're going to end up with property being something that no individual owns, and everyone rents a place to live from a corporation.

Re: Berlin Builds Ideas to Stage a Housing Revolution

#29

Post by crdoconnor »

choeger wrote: post #17

Everyone and their cat wants to live as close as humanly possible to the hip center of the hip city. But of course, they literally do not want to pay the price. Why is there a vegan bakery specialized in Afghan Bagel[1] around the corner? Because there are enough hip, young professionals to pay for even the most unlikely specialty. Business can afford to cater to the most extraordinary taste, but only because there a…

It's ironic how much effort is given to justifying the actual amount while the question of "who gets that cash and why do they deserve it?" gets glossed over.

It's a bit like when Russia privatised in the 90s and American economists told Russia that it really didn't who (i.e. oligarchs) owned everything provided everything is privatised.

Re: Berlin Builds Ideas to Stage a Housing Revolution

#30

Post by buro9 »

choeger wrote: post #17

Everyone and their cat wants to live as close as humanly possible to the hip center of the hip city. But of course, they literally do not want to pay the price. Why is there a vegan bakery specialized in Afghan Bagel[1] around the corner? Because there are enough hip, young professionals to pay for even the most unlikely specialty. Business can afford to cater to the most extraordinary taste, but only because there a…

> Due to the limits of public transportation

Fix this.

People live within n time of where they want to be. If people can travel faster then the space within n time can be greater.

This is the key to Tokyo and other very large metropolis cities.

Have public transport offer high speed and frequent rail routes, and then many local solutions from cycling, walking, buses, trams.

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