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Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

nltimes.nl

21–30 of 598 posts

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#21

So investors buy the homes then rent them out? What’s the problem? In some asian markets investors buy homes then sit on them unused for years. That’s a problem.

It affects the housing market very negatively. These are houses that could've been bought by families and couples and so on. Instead of being available for purchase, the same people have now have to rent instead of buy.

House prices rise, rent increases, common folk are struggling, investors are getting rich without doing anything.

It's just meh all over.

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#22
Dutch cities are easily the best-planned cities in the world. The channel "Not Just Bikes" [1] goes fairly in-depth as to why. I think I'll trust that the Dutch city planners know what they're doing in this instance.

[1]: https://youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#23
post #4

This is the only right way to deal with greed. Enough is enough.

Greed is innate to humans and you can't even take it away with communism, people will still find a way to collect and hoard. The problem is the low interest rates from central banks flooding the economy with money.

Some greed might be innate, but what we're seeing today with billionaires is not normal greed, it's extreme greed, something me (and many others) don't think is innate.

And where does "communism" come from? No one mentioned it here on HN nor in the article. People are so quick to label things, even if they are not even related.

In this case, Dutch people seems to had enough of expensive prices so now they are on the lookout for a solution. Just because this solution involves the government stepping in to adjust the market, doesn't mean that the Dutch government is suddenly "communist".

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#24
post #16
post #7

Do I understand correctly that they want to kick out all the students from the cities? When I was studying in Groningen I had to look for places to rent out of the city. Some students were camping in tents in front of the campus. Here is a photo from another city, Tilburg: https://www.dutchnews.nl/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/st... Some academic staff were even taking them in due to shortage of places to rent. I…

> Do I understand correctly that they want to kick out all the students from the cities? Presumably not, unless those students are property investors.

> investors won't be allowed to buy cheap and medium-priced homes and rent them out

So, who will be renting cheap and medium-priced homes?

There are already extremely severe shortages as exemplified by students camping in tents.

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#25
Amen to this. Two case studies from the UK I've been thinking about recently:

1) Visiting London and spending time in South Kensington - walking back to hotel at night, only about 30% of houses had any lights on. Suggestion is the others are effectively uninhabited, and a search on RightMove shows properties sell for £20-£30m for a 4/5 bed. This isn't normal Londoners, it's outside investment.

2) Cornwall, where I live - an insane house price rise over lockdown as city dwellers aim for the beautiful bits of the country. Literally no way now you could afford your first home round here on minimum wage, and some towns have a high (>50) % holiday or second homes.

It's an untenable situation. I think my generation (I'm nearly 50) are probably the last to be able to afford their own home on anything other than a massive wage.

Round here in Cornwall the jobs are things like surf instructor, supermarket worker, barperson, etc. That's not gonna stretch to the local house prices.

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#27

why not banning foreign buyers first. then corporations. homes should be for the people. it should be cheaper to acquire a home u live in than an home u buy to speculate/rent. And the difference should be way higher than a few % tax more

It seems there intent is to reduce the number of people who buy property just for investments, and then potentially sit on empty property waiting for opportunities. Banning foreign buyers would just do that, banning foreign buyers, which does not seem to be their intent. Even Dutch people buy property and just sit on it, like what happens in other countries as well. Not sure how focusing on if someone is Dutch or not…

Absentee landlords were notorious for allowing their Irish tenant's properties and amenities decay, while continuing to extracting rent. Yet back at home they were known as philanthropists who gave generously to "their own" poor houses and churches. People tend to care whether or not they are judged poorly, but only by peers and neighbours.

It may not make any difference who the investor is, but then again it may. Also, if the investor is resident, could there be other ways to ensure that they are not simply wringing every cent out of their investment with no reinvestment?

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#29
post #16
post #7

Do I understand correctly that they want to kick out all the students from the cities? When I was studying in Groningen I had to look for places to rent out of the city. Some students were camping in tents in front of the campus. Here is a photo from another city, Tilburg: https://www.dutchnews.nl/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/st... Some academic staff were even taking them in due to shortage of places to rent. I…

> Do I understand correctly that they want to kick out all the students from the cities? Presumably not, unless those students are property investors.

You misunderstood. The only way to rent a place is to rent it from an investor. If investors are banned from the city, then students need to buy the house/room they live in. This is of course not feasible for the majority of students.

Re: Dutch cities want to ban property investors in all neighborhoods

#30
post #16
post #7

Do I understand correctly that they want to kick out all the students from the cities? When I was studying in Groningen I had to look for places to rent out of the city. Some students were camping in tents in front of the campus. Here is a photo from another city, Tilburg: https://www.dutchnews.nl/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/st... Some academic staff were even taking them in due to shortage of places to rent. I…

> Do I understand correctly that they want to kick out all the students from the cities? Presumably not, unless those students are property investors.

I suppose the implied question is: who's going to rent to students if the landlords' investments get penalized for them not living there themselves. There's presumably too many students in these cities for all of them to find some family who have a spare room to rent.
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