Bin Chicken 🗑𓅠Mar 14, 2023

Steve owns 12 properties and is swimming in debt. He says landlords are other side of the rental crisis
https://www.9news.com.au/national/australian-property-crisis-steve-owns-12-properties-and-is-swimming-in-debt/30c23332-50b6-4f22-9a5b-20cc420f42d5

What are the measurements of Steve's neck? I need to know how large to make the neck-hole on a guillotine.

#AusPol #HousingCrisis #RentCrisis #RentHike #InterestRate

Steve owns 12 properties and is swimming in debt. He says landlords are other side of the rental crisis

<p>An Aussie landlord who has multiple mortgages says his portfolio has become unaffordable after the RBA hiked interest rates for the 10th consecutive time.</p>

9News
Show threadAnathema DeviceMar 14, 2023
@BinChicken quite :(
Show threadPeter WeilnböckMar 14, 2023
@anathema_device @BinChicken
Could you elaborate why you are angry with Steve precisely?
I am not familiar with the details in Australia, but usually guys like Steve are not the problem. He got himself into an uncomfortable situation, but still seems to be willing to talk with his tenants.
12 properties sounds like a lot - but he still has mortgages all of them. So he does not really fully own them.
At least this is what I get from the article. Or maybe I misunderstood you.
Show threadAnathema DeviceMar 14, 2023

@peter @BinChicken Well, for one thing, 12 houses is a lot of housing locked up in a market which is screaming for houses for people to buy and live in.

Second, the landlords in this city are gouging tenants like you cannot believe, so boohoo for Mr Landlord.

Third, if he couldn't working that historically low interest rates would eventually rise, then he's an idiot. 1/2

Show threadBin Chicken 🗑𓅠Mar 14, 2023
@anathema_device @peter Well said, @anathema_device.
To answer @peter's questions, I think houses should be for living in, not tools of financial speculation. If you own your own home then it's nice to think it would be worth more if you sell it, but buying additional houses shouldn't come with the unsustainable expectation of continuous and unbounded growth. And I fear because it seems to be the "Australian Dream" nowadays for upper-class and upper-middle-class people to buy additional houses, get renters to pay-off their mortgage for them, and thereafter be a source of "passive income".
In practice, this greed by unsophisticated investors has inflated the housing bubble in Australia and led to a corresponding increase in rent prices.
Renters are being forced to be unofficial guarantors for financially illiterate investors who are taking out reckless mortgages.
All this is happening while there's a shortage in availability for people who want to buy their first home.
Show threadPeter WeilnböckMar 14, 2023
@BinChicken @anathema_device
Thank you for your answers. I looked a bit into the reddit, and it seems like the landlords are on average overdoing it quite a bit.
In the areas I am more familiar with, rental places are important for people that do not qualify for a reasonable mortgage. But rental places are only possible if they are either profitable or funded by the government (which is nothing but a dream, at least in Austria).
Show threadPeter WeilnböckMar 14, 2023

@BinChicken @anathema_device
But to be frank, I still find calling for a guillotine a bit stark.

According to my experience small investors like Steve usually do not cause the trouble, but large scale investment firms, trying to squeeze out every penny.
Might be different in Australia though.

And, I think this was not clear, while I understand why Steve is upset, I do not think that a lot of pity for him would be justified.

Show threadAnathema DeviceMar 14, 2023
@peter @BinChicken I think, also, you might not be used to Australians extremely blunt and often coarse way of speaking to each other :)
Show threadPeter Weilnböck
@anathema_device @BinChicken
that might very well be the case.
I am a bit odd even for my cultural background in how much I avoid swearing. 😅
Mar 14, 2023 at 5:28amWeb
Show threadAnathema DeviceMar 14, 2023
@peter @BinChicken um, then you would be *very* odd in Australia! :)