261–270 of 598 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The only way to rent a place is to rent it from an investor. You mean in the Netherlands? Because I never had to do that in my country. I'm not aware of places where the only landlords are investors.
I think you are missing the point. All landowners are investors. They bought the property to make money. That makes them an investor. Maybe not a coporation but an investor.
This is desperately needed. And not just in the major cities; this is happening in every Dutch town. Amsterdam may have prices beyond absurd, but the whole nation is burdened by this problem. In the street I live in the capital of the northern province of Fryslân (Frisia) most homes are owned by their inhabitants, but in the past few years we've seen several houses being bought by small-time investors (who already ow…
specifically the last part:
> small-time investors who charge renters four times what my fellow homeowners and I pay for mortgage
But what about maintenance costs though? Those costs are very high, definitely 4x the cost of the mortgage! /s
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 li…
> spending time in South Kensington - walking back to hotel at night, only about 30% of houses had any lights on. South Kensington is a bit of a curiosity. It is predominantly bordered by Chelsea and Knightsbridge. Chelsea is Russian country, if you are a wealthy Russian, Chelsea is the place to be. Unless you are a Russian oligarch, in which case there are one or two spots a bit further away where you can splash sup…
But mostly it's that they're not residential to begin with. Many more are linked to an embassy, restaurants, clubs, nurseries, storage, etc. than you'd realise from 'walking back to hotel at night'.
Governments are printing money, inflation is eating savings. Properties are safe and easy way to protect money. When buying properties will be banned, what would you recommend as an alternative?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately, the British press and all the wealthy people with second homes still have Brexit as a scapegoat for why cafes and shops in tourist destinations can't find staff. Never mind the fact that AirBNB and second homes have pushed up house prices and rents to the point that it's impossible to live there on the kind of pay those jobs have, according to the media it's all the fault of Brexit driving away the for…
>it's all the fault of Brexit driving away the foreign workers who had to do the jobs Forgive me since I’m American, but wasn’t getting rid of foreigners taking jobs one of the selling points of Brexit?
It also exposed the loss of influence the UK had in the EU. Many provisions were carved out for them in the 80s. But when it came to the EC the EU was not making any exceptions for them this time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately, the British press and all the wealthy people with second homes still have Brexit as a scapegoat for why cafes and shops in tourist destinations can't find staff. Never mind the fact that AirBNB and second homes have pushed up house prices and rents to the point that it's impossible to live there on the kind of pay those jobs have, according to the media it's all the fault of Brexit driving away the for…
>it's all the fault of Brexit driving away the foreign workers who had to do the jobs Forgive me since I’m American, but wasn’t getting rid of foreigners taking jobs one of the selling points of Brexit?
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 li…
I mean, it’s an easily fixable problem. Punitively heavy land taxes on non-primary dwellings solves this overnight. It also raises a lot of capital that can be used to provide services in the area.
I don't dispute your underlying point that punitive taxes are a big part of the solution, but I take issue that it's an easy or overnight fix unfortunately because of the interests aligned against imposing them.
[1] https://gov.wales/welsh-government-announces-three-pronged-a...
In the long term, the ethically right answer seems pretty clearly to me to be a land value tax [0]. But due to encouragement of home ownership [1], that's not going to democratically tenable in a lot of countries for 20+ years. Unfortunate situation. [0] In 1879, a man asked "How come all this new economic development and industrialized technology hasn't eliminated poverty and oppression?" That man was Henry George,…
how is land value tax any different from a property tax that all homeowners already pay? If anything, it might end up being lower tax on residential housing, and much higher on commercial/retail.
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 li…
I mean, it’s an easily fixable problem. Punitively heavy land taxes on non-primary dwellings solves this overnight. It also raises a lot of capital that can be used to provide services in the area.
So your proposal will for sure hurt those vested interests, and I would expect it be very hard to pass the parliament. It's great to see Dutch cities actually made that far, I'll keep my eyes wide open to see what's next for them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is that it gets harder and harder for normal people to own anything (build up wealth), while building wealth is the best retirement startegy there is. I myself, for example, live in a city where owning the place I live in is just barely getting in reach for me, although I am in the top 30% income bracket of my country. I therefore have to put my savings into the stock market, which is at an all time high.…
The problem is that it gets harder and harder for normal people to own anything ( build up wealth), while building wealth is the best retirement startegy there is. This is the problem in a nutshell! It’s impossible for houses to continue to be great “wealth building” vehicles and for them be affordable. Politicians have prioritized the former and that’s how we got where we are. If we want affordable housing for peopl…