Earlier quoted context omitted.
Land Value Tax: Make it financially unfeasible to speculate, to withhold units from the market, and to withhold unused land from the market. Let prices freely fluctuate with the market. Increases in rent derived from externalities (i.e. Amazon HQ2 setting up shop nearby or a new subway station) go back into public coffers, while increases in rent derived from landlord actions (i.e. renovations, building bigger, bette…
I'm a fan as long as we also continue building. Build, build, build as long as demand is there.
A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K
91–100 of 450 posts
Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
That sounds terrible. What "section of Germany" are you in? Berlin?
Hamburg. The previous tenants left a mess, the landlord put in a new kitchen for us, new fences around the boundary, new back patio tiles. Ventilation is a problem as extractor fans need replacing and I’ve replaced a bunch of electric switches and sockets, but no fun. Classmates with income only from the job centre are unable to find a place to live, although that’s hardly better anywhere. In London the rents are ast…
"Apartments don’t come with kitchens in Germany" - https://alisajordanwrites.com/2018/08/06/apartments-dont-com...
Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
No they don't. The market determines rent. Lower demand or raise supply and watch prices drop, regardless of what the landlords want.
Market determines rent the same way market determines the cost of health insurance: people need a place to live the same way they need a doctor when they’re sick. If all the landlords are using collusion software to raise rent in tandem [0] what is your alternative, live in the streets until they give in? [0] https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r...
With housing it's more flexible: you can commute longer each day. You can just not move to a city where you know the "salary/cost of living" is not working in your favor. You can also time these decisions: go to NYC when you are in your 20s, live with some roommates to get some savings and then when you get older you can move to a more spacious city. You can be flexible about the space you need too: from 1 bedroom in a shared apartment, to a 3 beds detached house in a quiet suburb in another city, there is a lot of flexibility.
In a city there is a constraint on how much you can build, and everybody wants to be there. You can let the free market set the price, or you can try to distort the market with rent controls and then you end up with black markets, illegal payments, people holding on to their apartment for way longer they would normally do etc. Why would a 1 person ever move out of a large apartment if they have a low rent? They don't care that the same apartment would be a god-send for a family of 4...
Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rent control ideally wouldn’t need to exist. But since no one is fucking building anything - you need it to prevent landlords from just extracting more money from the pockets of laborers without having done any labor themselves. My landlord didn’t provide any more utility this year even though they jacked up my rent $1000/month this year. Nothing about my place got any better and I’m not getting anything out of it. T…
Always good to mention the property management cartel that's in cahoots with rental management software companies to price-fix and jack up rates for everyone ("allegedly"). People keep trying to rationalize the status quo with complex explanations, when the dynamic is really "Army setting up a school" dead-simple (or, even more applicable, Soviets setting up apartment blocks): if you care about fulfilling the need, i…
Just cause some capitalist lost a few dollars doesn’t mean anything. Capitalists don’t do any labor - that’s the whole point of why they invest in things. They put money in places hoping that they’ll get more out of it without having done anything. But it’s a risk - and the government shouldn’t be backing risk taking speculators who gamble with their money. It should be backing laborers!
But it doesn’t. Government is controlled by capitalists because capitalists have the discretionary money (thanks to stealing it from laborers) to keep lobbying to keep status quo.
Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K
#95The UK has completely abolished fees (I think) for tenants - I am a reluctant landlord - and I completely agree with that, the power asymmetry in finding housing is already bad enough without allowing blank-cheque negotiations. In my section of Germany, housing is even worse with rent caps and tenant rights, plus a lack of housing. Tenants are hard to move on, so landlords are painfully cautious about getting the rig…
Land Value Tax: Make it financially unfeasible to speculate, to withhold units from the market, and to withhold unused land from the market. Let prices freely fluctuate with the market. Increases in rent derived from externalities (i.e. Amazon HQ2 setting up shop nearby or a new subway station) go back into public coffers, while increases in rent derived from landlord actions (i.e. renovations, building bigger, bette…
Where this love for arbitrary taxation comes from? How much have you donated to your mayor's electoral campaign? Do you golf with aldermen?
Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
No they don't. The market determines rent. Lower demand or raise supply and watch prices drop, regardless of what the landlords want.
Market determines rent the same way market determines the cost of health insurance: people need a place to live the same way they need a doctor when they’re sick. If all the landlords are using collusion software to raise rent in tandem [0] what is your alternative, live in the streets until they give in? [0] https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-r...
The market for housing in a metropolitan area cannot be organized. Everyone is a landlord. If rent spikes to 100k a year, I'm going to throw away shit so I can rent my 2nd bedroom for 50k, and the cycle continues down.
Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K
#97The UK has completely abolished fees (I think) for tenants - I am a reluctant landlord - and I completely agree with that, the power asymmetry in finding housing is already bad enough without allowing blank-cheque negotiations. In my section of Germany, housing is even worse with rent caps and tenant rights, plus a lack of housing. Tenants are hard to move on, so landlords are painfully cautious about getting the rig…
Land Value Tax: Make it financially unfeasible to speculate, to withhold units from the market, and to withhold unused land from the market. Let prices freely fluctuate with the market. Increases in rent derived from externalities (i.e. Amazon HQ2 setting up shop nearby or a new subway station) go back into public coffers, while increases in rent derived from landlord actions (i.e. renovations, building bigger, bette…
I personally think it's awful to see elderly people getting priced out of a house they've owned for decades, young families have to move their kids in their high school years because the taxes have become unmanageable, how it disproportionately impacts POC as gentrification occurs, and all the other ways it impacts people's lives who just thought they were buying a house to set roots for their lives/families but then externalities cause it to suddenly become unaffordable.
It's extremely perverse when you consider that these people's tax dollars are often used by politicians to encourage the very "growth" that contributes to their affordability problem. They court corporations and give huge tax breaks to move their offices/factories to Texas, which drives up the demand for housing, etc.
Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K
#98The UK has completely abolished fees (I think) for tenants - I am a reluctant landlord - and I completely agree with that, the power asymmetry in finding housing is already bad enough without allowing blank-cheque negotiations. In my section of Germany, housing is even worse with rent caps and tenant rights, plus a lack of housing. Tenants are hard to move on, so landlords are painfully cautious about getting the rig…
Poland has a system where it's basically impossible to evict anybody if you rent under the standard rules. However, there exists a special type of contract which allows for quick and painless eviction, but where the tenant must provide proof that they have a place to stay at, either a deed to a property they own or a declaration from somebody who is willing to take them in. A lot of landlords insist on this type of c…
Some may consider it the end-goal, to be fair - as eventually you'd drive landlords completely out of business. The problem is that this is antithetical to higher density, because you need landlords of some form if you have anything denser than a duplex. You can have condos perhaps, but not everyone can afford to get into one, or even wants to.
And if there's a lack of landlords willing to rent, there will be a lack of landlords willing to build to rent, and so the housing stock will continue to increase at a glacial pace.
The laws of unintended consequences can strike in weird ways - making it easier to evict may result in more housing in total ...
Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K
#99For an $1,100/month apartment in NYC, a $15k fee is worth it, even if you have to take out debt for it.
Re: A rent-stabilized 1 bedroom apartment for $1,100 In NYC? broker's fee is $15K
#100The UK has completely abolished fees (I think) for tenants - I am a reluctant landlord - and I completely agree with that, the power asymmetry in finding housing is already bad enough without allowing blank-cheque negotiations. In my section of Germany, housing is even worse with rent caps and tenant rights, plus a lack of housing. Tenants are hard to move on, so landlords are painfully cautious about getting the rig…
Poland has a system where it's basically impossible to evict anybody if you rent under the standard rules. However, there exists a special type of contract which allows for quick and painless eviction, but where the tenant must provide proof that they have a place to stay at, either a deed to a property they own or a declaration from somebody who is willing to take them in. A lot of landlords insist on this type of c…
As it should be. Why would you want to allow someone to be judged for _not_ having been in debt in the past?
You can always ask for references if they rented before, that might help somewhat.