I don’t mind some landlords. A municipality being a landlord can be good, not everyone wants to buy a home outright. Renting is low commitment, low effort.
If you have a permanent residence, you should own that residence. The only reason to rent is if you don’t plan on living somewhere for a long time, and I don’t know a single person who fits that description. I understand that there are legitimate reasons to rent, but those reasons don’t account for the nearly half of all houses being rented out.
Okay except that’s not the situation we find ourselves in. Renting isn’t a problem, and being a landlord is not intrinsically wrong or immoral but the system that governs land ownership has consolidated many properties under a small number of financial portfolios. Such a small number in fact that it makes a collusion of a duopoly extremely easy. These aren’t a single family who subdivides their home to help cover some of the mortgage we’re talking about. These are enormous capital investment firms which view housing as an asset that’s garunteed to appreciate in value and renting as a benefit of the investment. Those capital investment firms don’t see a house as a place for someone to live, it’s an asset they can hold to plump up a spreadsheet. That’s the problem, not landlords be evil but that the system rewards evil landlords.
But there’s a shitload of municipal housing, they’re a (when combined) a huge landlord and use that and land policy to deliver more affordable housing. As a landlord they’re pretty reasonable.
I don’t mind some landlords. A municipality being a landlord can be good, not everyone wants to buy a home outright. Renting is low commitment, low effort.
If you have a permanent residence, you should own that residence. The only reason to rent is if you don’t plan on living somewhere for a long time, and I don’t know a single person who fits that description. I understand that there are legitimate reasons to rent, but those reasons don’t account for the nearly half of all houses being rented out.
Okay except that’s not the situation we find ourselves in. Renting isn’t a problem, and being a landlord is not intrinsically wrong or immoral but the system that governs land ownership has consolidated many properties under a small number of financial portfolios. Such a small number in fact that it makes a collusion of a duopoly extremely easy. These aren’t a single family who subdivides their home to help cover some of the mortgage we’re talking about. These are enormous capital investment firms which view housing as an asset that’s garunteed to appreciate in value and renting as a benefit of the investment. Those capital investment firms don’t see a house as a place for someone to live, it’s an asset they can hold to plump up a spreadsheet. That’s the problem, not landlords be evil but that the system rewards evil landlords.
But there’s a shitload of municipal housing, they’re a (when combined) a huge landlord and use that and land policy to deliver more affordable housing. As a landlord they’re pretty reasonable.