This story is being repeated across countries and cities.<p>It really is high time there is some serious regulation around home ownership, especially as an investment vehicle.<p>I would even say this is an existential issue for our current civilizational model - the unaffordability of housing is contributing to demographic decline globally.
While I agree that landlords are vampires, that here is wrong:<p>> But there is a stack of research a mile high that shows that the number one thing we need is a lot more housing supply<p>There are <i>millions</i> of units vacant everywhere, be it the US [1] or Germany [2]. The <i>last thing</i> the world needs is more housing construction, especially with the insane CO2 footprint of anything involving concrete.<p>The problem is that rural areas ("flyover states") have been left to rot: no reliable electricity grid, no public transport, basic infrastructure from grocery stores over schools to basic healthcare has closed down, no high-speed Internet which is a necessity for modern life - and particularly the latter is a major contributor in rural flight, as employers move towards more urban areas, which sets off a vicious cycle as the people follow the jobs, and the remaining infrastructure becomes too expensive to maintain. That this neglect is a direct cause of people losing trust in democracy is just the icing on the cake (and again, this <i>also</i> contributes to rural flight as LGBT and women flee far-right areas in droves).<p>We need to invest into rural areas again.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.nar.realtor/magazine/real-estate-news/16-million-homes-vacant-in-us" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.nar.realtor/magazine/real-estate-news/16-million...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.demografie-portal.de/DE/Service/Blog/191028-Wohnungsleerstand-in-Deutschland-Wo-sind-die-Herausforderungen-besonders-gross.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.demografie-portal.de/DE/Service/Blog/191028-Wohn...</a>
Government artificially restricts the supply of housing through zoning and excess regulation. This creates artificial shortages and inflates prices and rents. A more detailed analcyst: <a href="https://mises.org/wire/how-governments-outlaw-affordable-housing" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://mises.org/wire/how-governments-outlaw-affordable-hou...</a>
It isn't just housing, it is also the medical system and education.<p>These things that basically everyone needs are not getting cheaper over time but are getting more expensive so that they vacuum up as much money as possible.<p>(And it looks like vehicles/transportation is going to go this way as well, with companies licensing all the software in the vehicles to customers on a yearly subscription basis)
Of course, if everyone's wages would rise X%, it will increase rents and real-estate prices accordingly, as those are always prices as high as the market would bear and the more disposable income the market has, the more it can bear price increases.
You know there’s a real issue when progressives and libertarians are both in alignment (maybe not on the solutions, but in the problem).<p>A big part of the solution in North America is to change zoning and planning laws to allow for (missing) middle housing and allow for building up.<p><a href="https://missingmiddlehousing.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://missingmiddlehousing.com</a>
The problem isn't land owners it's landlords. Renting should be illegal and anyone caught accepting rent should lose his property to the renter.<p>Owning a lot of land/houses isn't really the problem. It's when you're not using them that's the problem. You should just sell and not leech on society by renting.