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Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

citylab.com

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Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#151

Post by cycrutchfield »

TomMckenny wrote: post #119
cycrutchfield wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So isn’t the more salient point here that tenants’ rights are apparently so strong here that the owners would rather leave the properties vacant (and lose money) than rent them out to a new tenant? Perhaps if they would remove some of the more pernicious and abused “rights” for tenants, more property owners would put their property up for rent?

>vast portfolios of housing whose tenants had been evicted Apparently not that many rights.

I mean, the properties were foreclosed on. Not sure what else you would expect.

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#152

Post by cycrutchfield »

romwell wrote: post #75
cycrutchfield wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So isn’t the more salient point here that tenants’ rights are apparently so strong here that the owners would rather leave the properties vacant (and lose money) than rent them out to a new tenant? Perhaps if they would remove some of the more pernicious and abused “rights” for tenants, more property owners would put their property up for rent?

>Perhaps if they would remove some of the more pernicious and abused “rights” for tenants, more property owners would put their property up for rent? Do you want slums? Because this is how you get slums.

Do you want hyperbole?

Because this is how you get hyperbole.

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#153

Post by roel_v »

akulbe wrote: post #127

It doesn't make sense to me why they'd WANT to leave them empty?? If I were a landlord, I'd be doing my best to keep the rentals occupied as much as possible.

When laws are very tenant-friendly (impossible to evict, caps on deposits etc), having tenants becomes a liability, which depresses the value of the building, especially if you only want to hold on to it for a few years.

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#155

Post by Const-me »

leetcrew wrote: post #15
longerthoughts wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe fines offer more discretion for officials (easy to impose, revise, and target specific landlords) as opposed to a tax which would be more rigid (slow to implement, difficult to change)?

is it good that fines allow them to target specific landlords?

Can be either, depends on society.

Bad if the officials are corrupt and will use that power to extort money for personal profits.

Good if the officials are democratically elect, supported by the public, do what people want them to, and the public is mostly good people.

Have no idea about Barcelona's officials nor society.

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#156

Post by hannasanarion »

nickparker wrote: post #94
tschellenbach wrote: post #76

It sounds nice, but the real question is why are people letting these building sit empty. There is probably a good reason for it. Maybe some renter protection laws that went too far?

When I've seen these discussions before the two big factors cited are: * Real estate investors can borrow against the long term income of their properties, and often value that above the short term rents. They also tend to be highly leveraged to build the next project. This creates situations where high vacancies and poor returns are worthwhile because they can pretend they'll fill the building at their price eventua…

Not just China, but Arabia and Russia too. The Manhattan Skyline is increasingly defined by enormous residential skyscrapers with condos that sell for hundreds of millions of dollars, and sit empty year-round.

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#158

Post by parthdesai »

cycrutchfield wrote: post #149
parthdesai wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here, according this[0] report Toronto has around 6200 entire units as airbnb units. That's at the very least 6200 less rental units in the market. And you know very well how supply and demand works. Anecdotal, but the couple in my neighbouring unit recently bought a condo and moved out. Guess what happened to that unit. It's a full time airbnb unit now. My floor has 12 units, and out of it 3 are full time airbnb uni…

>Anecdotal You could have just summarized your entire post up with just that one word. You have no conclusive proof that airbnb is the sole cause of the rent increases you have observed.

And i never said airbnb is the sole reason. Maybe learn to comprehend the actual point first?

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#160

Post by dang »

Pirolita wrote: post #18

People should be able to do whatever they want with their properties

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News? Especially flamebaity ones; the combination amounts to trolling.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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