axEl7fB5Satire is indistinguishable from stupidity
IlovethebombThere’s a lot of good ideas in there, but rent freezes aren’t one of them. Limiting what you can charge for a service just means less people will want to provide that service.
Yes landlords will just take their houses overseas.
Even if you just talk about building new homes, freezing rent just caps the profits that can be pulled out of a project. If it’s profitable right now, why shouldn’t it be with same income tomorrow?
Because costs only go up, that’s why. It may not be profitable tomorrow at all.
Then lift the freeze once there’s no profit left anymore, or just keep the freeze for existing buildings. Limit the rent increase etc.
The issue here is, and this has happened before, investors will either sell the property, meaning those not in a position to buy are screwed, or they will do the bare minimum to keep the building functioning, as there is no incentive to improve the building.
investors will either sell the property
Good. Investors rather than inhabitants owning homes is a huge part of why rent and property prices have skyrocketed.
they will do the bare minimum to keep the building functioning
They already do that in order to maximize profits.
there is no incentive to improve the building.
Ever heard of this new thing called laws and regulations? It’s the only “incentive” that actually DOES work to correct the behavior of greedy slumlords.
Letting them keep increasing the already obscenely high rents just means more profits for them in return for no benefit for anyone else.