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I think it can be generally said that the US and their success stories are a force for the bad in the world.
All the high profile multi-billion dollar tech companies to arise in the last 15-20 years have been some form or other of using technology to skirt existing regulations and to move the risk and expense onto others.
PayPal, Uber, Airbnb, DoorDash, you name it, their “innovations” weren’t any kind of innovation in technology, they were innovations in creative ways to make something 5% more convenient at the expense of making it 500% worse all round for everyone.
Build. More. Homes.
We used to have enough, and then in the late 70s, early 80s they decided that if they didn’t build enough, then they could make housing scarce and therefore more valuable. A big long-con, 40 years in the making.
Housebuilders would make more profit per home. Homeowners would have more wealth (even if they can’t access it). Inheritance taxes could take more of a bite. Landlords could charge more. Retirements could be funded entirely by buying 2-3 houses and renting them out, and then cash in later on the full value of those homes when they’d gone up by double the interest rates.
They don’t have to be amazing homes. They don’t need an acre of land to sit on. They don’t need three bedrooms. Kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room. Affordable on a quarter of a single person’s minimum wage income.
We already have enough homes, it’s just that too many of them are owned by Black Rock and similar companies.
I thought investment companies didn’t own that many, but just enough to bump the price too high. Like they influenced the market. Now developers are building in the hopes they get bought by the investment guys.
you just have to make sure that the new houses aren t bought by landlords…
You have to realise that landlords aren’t the plague. They’re the buboes. A symptom.
If you can take your spare money (a concept from days gone by, I know), buy a house for X, rent it out for Y a month, then finally sell it in 20 years for Z, and be 99.99% guaranteed to make more money from it than you can from pretty much any other source, then why wouldn’t you?
Remove the incentive for that (homes that don’t go up by more than the inflation rate), there will be no need for them to exist.
But in any case, the size of the building projects required would likely be government level anyway, and they can be the “landlord” for anyone not wanting to buy. This was called council houses in the olden days, before Maggie Thatcher killed that.
I realize that not all landlords are to blame, just the greedy ones. There are way more of those.
While I understand your point, I don’t think I fully agree with it. If house prices are connected to inflation, what is there to stop somebody from buying a house and renting it out. The rent money is used to buy a second house and so on. The price of houses will go up, and so will the rent. But the houses themselves were bought at a lower price, so house prices going up would not have any influence on the landlord. In the meantime the rent keeps going up, reultiyin more profit in the end.
Now of there would be a taxation based on actual worth of a person. And the amount of taxation is based on the minimal income in a country…
Maybe a bit farfetched and I do not know if I explain it in a way that I get my idea across.
If house prices were directly connected to inflation, there would be no issue.
But they run far above inflation. This is what gets a pack of landlords involved.
There’s a point where putting your money into a basic stock market tracker gives a better return than landlording. That’s when they go and do that instead. It’s a lot less up front investment, and a lot less risk.
It’s mostly the spiralling house prices that attracts the landlord class, not the rent. The house is making money even if there’s nobody in it. Rent is just the icing on the cake. Right now they just cannot lose.
one home per person, no homes owned by businesses
apartment buildings become condos, each unit owned by a person to do with as they please
woodchip any business owners who fight back against the new regulation
spare money
I hate you
The landlords aren’t doing anything wrong, if the market price is too high you have to increase supply it’s that easy.
ethically wrong or legally wrong?
I mean my statement is pretty broad, there might be some landlords somewhere who do things that are either ethically or legally wrong. But in general they aren’t doing either. Landlords are people who invest their money and time in housing and just like any investment they want it to be profitable. If it’s too profitable it’s not their fault, it’s that we have to build more houses, have better transportation and better public housing to ease off pressure on the private market, not kill all landlords.
They certainly aren’t doing anything unexpected.
But, the word “wrong” carries an implication of moral judgment, and most people here are gonna disagree with you on that one.
That is one of the reasons conservatives are so gung-ho on rugged individualism and individual responsibility while being against regulation. In public they get to tell supporters that they are all strong smart boys who can make their own decisions, while also implying that “others” in disadvantaged groups are in their situations due to character flaws and subhuman status. In private they get to ruin the world and apparently prey on children pretty often because the people impose no rules on them.
Large numbers of individuals are easy for them to manipulate. Written laws and regulations are much less so, even though not impervious.
Edit to add:
This whole “they are behaving as expected == they are not doing anything wrong” attitude from the right quickly morphs into “they are a business, not a charity” and other similar sayings.
That flawed reasoning plus a few more leaps in logic then leads to seeing profitability as an indicator of morality.
And even THAT infiltrates personal lives. Resting for mental & physical health instead of building a skill or starting a side hustle? Laziness! Wasted hours of your life!
Spend some time and money on a hobby that brings joy to your life and gives you a reason to exercise? Wasteful! Selfish! Foolish! Just think of what that money could have done in the market h while you chose a better hobby that could scale into something profitable!!
Whoa whoa hold the fuck up. What do you mean that you intentionally lose money on your hobbies!? What kind of god-fearing red-blooded american just tosses aside the Rules of Acquisition so carelessly?
Spain is cracking down on this according to a local when I was there recently.
On Airbnb or the garfiti?
Air bnb. Actually, I think street art is pretty encouraged. But not tagging like this.
Airbnb
garfiti
I choose to interpret this as referring specifically to Garfield Grafitti.
Not sure if anyone who lives here hasn’t seen it yet, but !barcelona@piefed.social is a thing.
Copy pasted from another comment, the mayor who announced the decision made it so that it would applied after the end of his tenure (that will end in 2027, the decision is supposed to happen in 2028)
The other issue is that even besides tourism, Barcelona is a very attractive city for Spanish people due to the work opportunities, and there is definitely a lack of supply for the housing market. Getting back the Airbnb would help with the mass tourism (which is an issue of its own), but the housing crisis might still be there for a while.
Renting out property is so evil, and Airbnb is like a double evil on top of that. Very powerful graffiti that makes a good clear message, well done to whoever did this.
Get rid of air bnb and similar. It’s caused a ton of problems in Japan as well with people buying whole buildings and pricing out existing tenants. There are legal protections, but most tenants, particularly elderly, don’t know about them and either pay new increased prices by the new landlord or move out. The government enacted laws requiring a minpaku (think lodging/hotel) license and putting maxes on time, but tons of people still run illegal ones.
A lot of those people seem to be Chinese investors running them off of other sites which has furthered anger and xenophobia against all foreigners. One of the parties that skyrocketed in the most recent election wants to strip property rights from all foreigners and not just investment properties but ALL properties. It’s a reaction to getting priced out and the government not doing shit about it. Granted, there are tons of other problems (prices rising weekly or monthly, wages not keeping up at all with inflation and rising prices, and overtourism more generally), but this is low-hanging fruit.
As someone who just bought a house last year (on the market for over a year in the countryside with farmland for which I had to interview and get permits to buy and use), and volunteers in his community, this is terrifying to me. I had to go through tons of extra hoops just for being a foreigner to begin with and now, thanks to fuckhead illegal hotel owners and bad policy, now lots of people want to take the one little bit of stability I finally felt.
thanks to fuckhead illegal hotel owners
Wrong fight, wrong enemies
Weird way of asking for 5 stars, but ok. /s
Shouldnt have sold your home to a parasite corporation then, doesnt sound very anarchist to me. Then gets angry and enshittifies their city with spraypaint, people from barca aren’t the brightest bunch.
Are you lobotomised? Obviously the author doesn’t own the house duh
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What is that even supposed to mean? You sold the home to someone else who rents it out?
I want to live in your world where everyone owns their own home
I’m renting. And if the owner sells the place, that’s their right and prerogative to do so.
They must have delicious boots
Yeah, a tenant should definitely have more rights over the owners property than the owner. Keep thinking that way.
Long term renter evicted in favor of short term Air BnB.
The houses were being rented to locals who are now pushed out so the houses can be offered as much more expensive airbnbs.
Literally just happened to my coworker and I’m in America…
Landlord sold the house to some scumbag Airbnb parasite who then kicked my coworker out. The whole town is turning into this because rich fucks want to come walk around for 3 months of the year… Then it turns into a ghost town because we’ve all been pushed out.
The tourists and techbros wonder why the city isn’t as fun or cool as it used to be. It’s because those people had to leave. Tech bros and corporations created this shit.
Assuming that you’re asking in good faith - People are frequently evicted from longterm rented accomodation because the landlord can make more profit from AirBNB. This in turn reduces the pool of available housing and drives up rents.
Property owners realized they can do a long term rental for $2000/month, or short-term rentals for $2000/week. Obviously, they chose the more profitable one. So people who want to live in a place long term, perhaps fueling the local economy and community, get pushed out.
Then, the places that remain as long term rentals raise the prices because there’s fewer of them competing (assuming they aren’t already forming a cartel)
Personally I think the state should have a heavier hand in providing housing. It’s too essential to let private forces squeeze it for profit.
Overtourism in Barcelona has meant the locals have been priced out (gentrified) out of their own city.
They could have been renters in the first place.
Over in my parts we had a big problem of landlords jacking up rent to squeeze tenants out and list the property on Airbnb. I haven’t followed those trends in a while though. I think the turnover/cleaning cycle cut into ROI and discouraged that trend a bit.
completely unrelated to your comment but the post above this one was a few children roleplaying guillotine
i know. unrelated to this topic, but its pretty neat
I saw that pic too! Coffee hadn’t kicked in yet and took me a second to realize what was going on. Kids toys are so bland these days.
This feels like misplaced anger, given that blackstone owns god knows how much of the real estate market ( and have recently been evicting tenants in order to sell, due to the city becoming ‘less hospitable’ ). But hopefully the new anti airbnb measures have some effect.
I don’t think it’s misplaced, but even if it’s not the biggest piece in the puzzle(I honestly don’t claim to know) it’s still a valuable piece, one might even say it’s as valuable as an edge of corner piece of the puzzzle
In Barcelona?
Not everything is solely an american issue, even (especially) when it comes to US companies.
Doing some minimal research, it does appear as if they are trying to take over the world: https://archive.is/ZQBz3
It’s kind of what they do… I wouldn’t assume safety because of borders or local rules and regulations. Those don’t stand up against billions of dollars and a determined evil company.
Classic Lemmy where someone says “not every is American” in response to an issue that actually does apply to them
What I don’t get is why the people of Barcelona want tourists out. That’s such a dumb knee-jerk reaction imho. Tourism is not the problem. In fact it’s a major revenue for the city. They could use it to build affordable housing for locals. The government could put a cap on rent and similar restrictions on whatever Airbnb arrangements. If it’s not more profitable to give out one’s property for short term rentals then the trend will fade. If someone can explain the current anti-tourism stance as opposed to a push for alternative measures I’d appreciate it.
The government could put a cap on rent and similar restrictions on whatever Airbnb arrangements.
Not easy. They tried but don’t have the authority. I think they managed for home long term rentals but not as aggressive as before.
The revenue from tourism is limited to the city. Most rentals are owned by large foreign companies, so profit goes away. Clearly not enough to pay for extra housing (one airbnb house taxes can’t pay for a full new house).
Also, they are pushing away people who lived there, as the neighborhoods are focusing on tourists more and more (again, foreign investment firms who don’t spend back in the city).
I used to live 25 min walking to Sagrada Familia. 8 years ago there were usually no tourists or stores focused on tourists. Now it’s a very common place for tourists to stay, and prices show it.
Hello,
Not sure if you’re still in Barcelona, but there is !barcelona@piefed.social
Not anymore, recently left. Honestly tourism and it’s many side effects was one of the motivating factors.
I definitely get that. Are you still in Spain or have you moved abroad ?
I’m guessing all those things that could and should happen are not happening because of greed.
Tourism is cancer
Because the people making money are not the people living there.
It really baffles me that it’s legal to own a house
You mean like as opposed to a government assigned home?
You can’t really live without air, food and a home, it’s a basic need, it should not be something you can horder like a dragon and deny the access to others
It’s very interesting this binary thinking in terms of good vs evil, private own vs government own, it’s very hard to think outside bourgeoisie ideology?
You said a lot of stuff but I don’t think any of it would really help someone who isn’t on the same page as you already
I don’t think I said anything too complicated to understand, we have a problem, people starve but there’s a lot of food, people are homeless but there’s a lot of houses
People normalize food been trashed while other people starve, this is not normal, and we all know what need to be done, this system does not work for the majority of the people
I know what you said; all I’m saying is that your original comment didn’t account for the audience well. I think both of your comments (this and the former) are great and informative, but the one I’m replying to now is much better for someone that isn’t already in the know on the general concepts. I appreciate the effort you put into them both :)
Funny how if you remove all landlords no one loses their home.
People who can no longer afford their mortgages would disagree with you.
Edit: I’ve absolutely no fucking idea why you all think I mean landlords here. You do realise normal people have mortgages right? And if you don’t pay them, the bank take your house and make you homeless?
Fuck landlords bitch.
Ban landlord culture and property prices drop.
Kinda sucks for those already with a mortgage. Defending rental culture because someone might lose out now only guarantees that an ever increasing majority lose out in the future.
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It’s not just landlords pushing it up.
The constrained supply, the low interest rates, the greedy banks pushing bigger and bigger mortgages, government “help to buy” schemes which appear to be a way to help people buy homes, but in effect just pushes the price ever higher…
The centralisation of jobs in certain areas. We have the internet. This could have practically solved the property crisis on it’s own, along with overloaded transport systems and pollution, but rich people were losing too much money, so back to the office, plebs.
Constrained supply
But there are empty properties now. There is supply. House prices are too high for all of the property to be affordable. That is because property as an appreciating investment is valuable. You can only live in one house, to buy multiple properties and have that appreciated investment, you are a landlord.
Low interest rates
allow you to buy a property. They allow people investing in housing to buy many. It results in the above.
Banks pushing bigger mortgages
Sure
Help to buy
Allows affordable housing to become an investment. See my first point.
Rich people were losing to much money
Yep, some of those people were landlords who were finding city prices dropping.
Clearly landlord culture isn’t the “only” problem. But fuck me it’s a big part of the issue.
Yeah it would suck to have my house drop in value while I still owe the bank so much money, but anyone who isn’t willing to suck it up for the obvious greater good is an asshole.
They should find a job
Landlording isn’t a real job. It provides no value to society.
Landlords can change that by simply changing businesses.
People who can no longer afford their mortgages because they suddenly can’t leech of off working people can go fuck themselves.
“There’s a great place to go when you’re broke: to work!”
- big time landlord and big time conservative asshole (but I repeat myself) Dave Ramsey.
Luckily all these rugged individual landlords already know exactly where their boot straps are! Right??
Is he hiring? Is he willing to pay a reasonable living wage?
If not he should STFU.
reasonable living wage?
Whoaaaaa hold on there Chairman Adolf Stalin!! Are you asking him to stifle his innovation??
So? Then they shouldn’t have gotten real estate to begin with if they can’t afford a house. A person who relies on renting property to make a living are leaches living off the working class.
You do realise normal people have mortgages, right? I don’t know why everyone has just assumed I’m taking about landlords here…
I and many working people like me can’t afford a mortgage EVER because all of the market is bought up for renting, so they would become just like me, except I’d have a real fucking job
what mortgages? shelter must be a right. people shouldn’t be allowed to own other people’s homes. everyone should be provided with housing by paying taxes or being covered by social aid systems.
“Concerns” like this is why the housing situation will never be fixed. Guess what? Fixing the housing crisis will always means stopping it from being a profitable investment.
Why would mortgage prices go up without landlords?
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Having no context whatsoever of the position the person making the graffiti was in: “If you don’t kill people you’re a loser”
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