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I really hope that battery technology, EV technology, and self-driving technology lead to a tremendous boom in full-time RV / vanlife popularity and make it a better quality of life than traditional fixed housing and all the people who bought up housing as an investment vehicle see their money go poof. It's like using potable water or the air we breathe as an investment vehicle.
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Hilarious sure, but also sad and concerning. I'm tentatively alright with the idea of renting forever and never owning property... but with rent increasing and investors buying up more and more property, it looks like things will get uglier and uglier. I am not alright with paying absurdly high rent.
Well, the idea that owner will be saddled with serious repair and maintenance whereas renter on virtue of being a renter will just move out to house on next street risk free seems unsustainable to me. Increasing rents are a kind of distributing risks of costly maintenance that renters doesn't want to care about.
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Hilarious sure, but also sad and concerning. I'm tentatively alright with the idea of renting forever and never owning property... but with rent increasing and investors buying up more and more property, it looks like things will get uglier and uglier. I am not alright with paying absurdly high rent.
> I am not alright with paying absurd rent. Then you should either: 1) Buy a house to live in 2) Buy a house to hedge against rents going bananas The 30-year fixed rate mortgage at negative real rates is the biggest handout the world has ever seen.
Gen Z and the generations to come have a real reason to be pissed at the rest of us.
In 2012 I was looking at investing in REITs. One REIT's pitch was that they owned such a large percentage of the rental housing in Tampa Florida, that even though vacancy rates were high, and rents were going down throughout the nation and other areas in the state of Florida, they were able to keep rents high in Tampa. Disgusted, I realized the harm that REITs and private equity are doing to housing markets, and want…
One REIT's margin is another REIT's opportunity.
I really hope that battery technology, EV technology, and self-driving technology lead to a tremendous boom in full-time RV / vanlife popularity and make it a better quality of life than traditional fixed housing and all the people who bought up housing as an investment vehicle see their money go poof. It's like using potable water or the air we breathe as an investment vehicle.
This is already a very profitable investment. Of course, it can be made more profitable through monopoly through the process of enclosure (conversion of commons to private ownership). The private water companies have even had legislation passed that gives them exclusive rights to the rain falling on your roof so you cannot collect rain water to avoid paying parasitic rents.
> ...a law was passed that appeared to give a monopoly to Aguas del Tunari over all water resources, including water used for irrigation, communal water systems and even rainwater collected on roofs.[68] Upon taking control the company raised water tariffs by 35%.
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We just need to remember that banning housing investment means banning rentals which is problematic for people who don't have good credit and a down payment.
There are ways to disincentivize toxic forms of investment (especially speculation) without banning it. A high land value tax, for example, would simultaneously increase investment and decrease speculation.
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I think the concern is local investors keep the money in the local economy, whereas 'foreign' investors are extracting value from the local community.
How are foreigners giving money to local construction companies and others in the community "extracting value"? Those foreign investors are capitalizing the community.
If the owner of the property lives in the community, the rent that is being paid to that owner is much more likely to be circulated locally. If the rent goes to a foreign company, it's removed entirely.
Upkeep and maintenance would also occur regardless of who the owner of the property is, so it's not like they're creating "new jobs" because it's foreignly owned.
I really hope that battery technology, EV technology, and self-driving technology lead to a tremendous boom in full-time RV / vanlife popularity and make it a better quality of life than traditional fixed housing and all the people who bought up housing as an investment vehicle see their money go poof. It's like using potable water or the air we breathe as an investment vehicle.
What constitutes an 'Investor' in this article? If I see a distressed home for sale in my neighborhood and decide to buy it, fix it up, and rent it out; this article seems to put me in the same category as institutional investors who come in and buy or build entire communities of homes.
You are, just as much, competing against someone who wants to buy that home for themselves thus raising the price of it.
It's not like OP is going to buy the home and let it sit vacant.
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We just need to remember that banning housing investment means banning rentals which is problematic for people who don't have good credit and a down payment.
Imagine if housing was cheap enough that paying the mortgage was around the same as what it now costs to rent. There definitely needs to be some rentals, but I believe that there needs to be controls over how many and the rental price.
Also, rentals tend to be higher density than houses that are owned. If there is a housing crisis, this seems like a desirable thing. Ex: roommates (yes, possible with a house, but less likely), etc.