top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 157 points 2 years ago (20 children)

Housing is a basic human need, it shouldn’t be allowed to be only an investment. With the other items, you can just say “so don’t buy it”, which is not possible with housing, you have to pay for it, even of you wouldn’t like to.

  • source
  • hideshow 21 child comments
  • load more comments (19 replies)
    [+] 137 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)
  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I'll add to that: The PlayStation etc scalpers at least give you a still-new product at the inflated price. The landlords rent it out for additional income and THEN sell it at a profit.

    So it's more like buying a PS5 for $500, having somebody rent to play it for $100/mo, then selling it for $800 after a year

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
  • load more comments (3 replies)
    [–] 96 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    They're all pieces of shit and deserve to be kicked out an airlock into deep space.

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [+] 19 points 2 years ago (8 children)
  • [–] 36 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    When scalpers buy all the tickets to a concert in milliseconds, and the only way to buy a ticket is through a scalper, why are you blaming the person who wants to go to the concert instead of the scalper?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    If we all collectively agreed to not buy from scalpers the ticket sellers would have a real incentive to do something against the scalpers. Right now they don't have to care.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Would thry?

    The ticket seller doesn't care if there's an empty hall, he got paid early on.

    You're hoping that the scalpers don't get enough return to be able to justify continuing to play their role.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago

    You’re hoping that the scalpers don’t get enough return to be able to justify continuing to play their role.

    Yes, that's what "If we all collectively agreed to not buy from scalpers" would achieve. I get that that isn't going to happen but it is still our collective fault.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (6 replies)
  • load more comments (2 replies)
  • load more comments (7 replies)
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 46 points 2 years ago* (1 child)
  • [–] 44 points 2 years ago

    Scalper no Scalping!

  • source
  • [–] 42 points 2 years ago* (5 children)

    There should be a hard limit of houses you can buy. Two by default (the one you live in and one you can rent to someone, maybe with a requirement that you need to live there occasionally) and an additional one for each child if he or she doesn't have one yet.

  • source
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 56 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    The problem is most houses are being bought by huge companies, not people.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 32 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    We should really start by limiting that. If we start treating housing as a basic right, which we should, there's zero reason a company should be allowed to own housing to profit off of. It's a far bigger problem than my landlady who owns five flats. We can talk about limits for people like her later.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago

    For sure. But we don't even consider water a basic right and concede unlimited water rights to mega corporations before reserving water access to the local population. So I have no hope for that to happen with housing...

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    They are using advanced algorithms to find the best prices for in demand properties based on profit percentages. Its become so ridiculous corpos are buying houses before individuals can even bid or have access. They buy them in lots at a time. Even using the same algos to place offers on existing properties where people live. Its ludicrous.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    In Cuba they have a law that requires you to sell your house if you buy a new one. That also means you can't be a landlord or else you yourself would be homeless. They also have a law that guarantees that if you don't own your own home, you at least get public housing guaranteed, which has rent capped at 10% of income so it can never exceed that. They have the lowest homelessness rate in all of the Americas.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    First 5 investment properties should carry a 1% property income tax that is directly funneled into a housing development program, then a 5% property income tax on the next 5, 10% on the next 10...

    Realestate is the safest and highest yield investment working people can make to build generational wealth. Dont cut the throat of the guy who can afford a brand new Audi to spite the guy who has to decide between wether his driver fetches the Rolls or the Bentley.

    People should be able to aspire to being rich, just not filthy rich.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
    [–] 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    It always impresses me how much people worship landlords, even Canada up there is having a housing crisis but nobody dares question the sanctity of landlords. You can watch both the major parties arguing for hours and nobody ever brings up landlordism once. A lot of them choose to instead become hostile to immigrants, both parties moving further right on immigration because stopping immigration or potentially even kicking out immigrants to them is more acceptable than questioning the sanctity of landlords. You also saw a similar thing here in the USA, I remember after the Trump/Kamala debate when they revealed the plans for bringing housing prices down and Trump was "mass deportation" and Kamala was "a tax credit." Not sure about every country definitely here in US and Canada, people here treat landlords like unquestionable deities, the idea that their right to rule should even be called into question is not even something that passes through most people's heads.

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    One thing that started here in New Zealand was reporting on and ranking their portfolio sizes (lots had it tied up in an estate or trust, but that connection was able to be reported on - even if it might be 'co-owned by the family').

    We still have huge problems in this area but the noble few that don't 'stand out like a dogs bollocks' and all the others just looked like the same bunch of psycho/sellouts

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago*

    At least in the case of fumos these days they're made-to-order. Buying 10 of them isn't snatching 10 of them from the carts of other potential buyers, it just means 10 more fumos will be made. If anything it's strictly increasing the supply and making them more accessible to people who couldn't make the preorder window.

    This was absolutely not the case a few years ago, though. And just because you're technically not scalping doesn't mean you can't still wildly overcharge.

  • source
  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Seeing alot of touhou in the fediverse lately.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    I think most of you are underestimating the cost of housing maintenance. We had some bad luck and a couple of structurally necessary renos were bigger than initially thought, or didn't address the issue as well as we hoped, requiring new renos. In the last 20 years we've paid the cost of our townhouse apartment once over, easy. And now the bathroom, kitchen, and flooring could use an upgrade (25-50 years old), which is again expensive. In that time its value has risen maybe 50%, not quite keeping pace with local inflation.

    Not complaining, we bought it for living in and it's been great for that, and now that everything is at the end of its lifespan is a good time to really make it ours. But house prices aren't rising insanely everywhere, house upkeep isn't free (there are always "modifications"), and at least here the average ROI for being a landlord is abt 4-6%, same as stocks lately, and that's assuming no major surprises.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    This is how I learn there's a lego death star now?

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    load more comments
    view more: next ›