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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

#161

Post by bobthepanda »

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…

It doesn't need to be a large amount of money to meaningfully impact the market, because housing is so illiquid. Most people are not moving at any given time.

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#162

Post by conanbatt »

baroffoos wrote: post #135
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.

Because renting doesn't make you that much money and you have to work for it. Just leaving it sitting there and selling it later is no effort profit

But its the exact opposite. Rental is generally profitable. You can bet on land while also renting and making extra money.

You can't argue that they are greedy for buying land but not greedy enough to squeeze more money out of it.

The answer is somewhere else.

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#163

Post by conanbatt »

danans wrote: post #123
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?

I can only speak for my area (in California), but in many cases the properties are owned outright (no loan), and have their property taxes essentially fixed at rates that were set decades ago due to Proposition 13, with only small adjustments thereafter. Therefore, the owners have little imperative to offer the properties for rent, with all the associated hassles, to meet their limited expenses. The properties are of…

If they bought the propery decades ago and never rented it, it was definitely rent control. Otherwise they lost a bunch of money.

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#164

Post by bobthepanda »

elihu wrote: post #46
pbiggar wrote: post #35

Does anyone know why is it that seemingly every major city is having an affordability crisis at the same time?

My take on it is that there aren't enough desirable cities available to employ and house all the people who want to live in them. This can be addressed by either increasing the capacity of those cities, by making existing undesirable cities more desirable, or just creating new desirable cities where no city currently exists.

Creating new cities out of scratch rarely works. Cities need a reason to exist, and newly planned cities tend to fall apart from a lack of jobs.

Example: https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/06/sleepy-in-songdo-koreas...

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#165

Post by conanbatt »

mey wrote: post #79
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?

More likely it's worth it to them to keep rates high and limit supply.

A) Buy property: rent it out.

B) Buy another property: sit it empty

C) First property rent is higher than the rent of 2 properties

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#166

Post by conanbatt »

minikites wrote: post #104
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?

You're of the opinion that the power balance in the landlord/tenant relationship is biased in favor of the tenant?

It is on rent control.

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#167

Post by nradov »

Scoundreller wrote: post #50
mamon wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is actually the enabler here: just register a friend or relative as living in your apartment, and you're done. And of course, you're doing that as a favor, so you're not charging them any rent that might be a subject to taxation.

There are other methods. Utility bills for example. Is the electricity utilization random enough or a little too constant? What about water? Natural gas? Pay the garbage collectors to rat out homes that never leave anything out. Are the windows always left open even on the hottest days and no A/C? Is the keyfob for entry never used? Ultimately, every tax can be evaded. Income, sales, corporate. This one won’t be any…

Some electric utilities already report customers with abnormally high electrical consumption as possible indoor marijuana farms.

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#168

Post by nradov »

parthdesai wrote: post #105
l4yao wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this argument a lot whenever Airbnb is mentioned. Do you have a source available? Rent has increased significantly in Toronto recently. How do you know Airbnb is a significant factor?

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…

Why doesn't the HOA just block short term rentals?

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#169

Post by danans »

conanbatt wrote: post #163
danans wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can only speak for my area (in California), but in many cases the properties are owned outright (no loan), and have their property taxes essentially fixed at rates that were set decades ago due to Proposition 13, with only small adjustments thereafter. Therefore, the owners have little imperative to offer the properties for rent, with all the associated hassles, to meet their limited expenses. The properties are of…

If they bought the propery decades ago and never rented it, it was definitely rent control. Otherwise they lost a bunch of money.

Not likely. If the property was never rented in the first place, then there is no rent control.

In SF, rent control resets to market rates automatically when a tenant moves out, and doesn't apply to single family homes or condominiums.

An unoccupied apartment can be leased at market rates.

Re: Barcelona Fines Landlords Who Let Buildings Sit Empty

#170

Post by Scoundreller »

alanlamm wrote: post #110
opportune wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah let's just get rid of income taxes and have an empty-building based economy that makes a lot of sense

While we are at it, lets tax the vacant hours of the unemployed - those evil speculators who are consipiring to restrict the supply of labor. That will encourage them to work and thereby be able to afford all that brand new housing!

Lazy athletes performing 2-3 hours a night for 75 days a year and retiring at 35.
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