Continuing to increase rent purly because thats what the market says it should be is a full dick move…
High home prices are what incentivize people to build more homes.
Homes should never be investments…
Why not? A huge chunk of the population wants to rent. Maybe they are going to college, or are moving to a new city and want to get a feel before buying, or maybe they just don’t want to deal with the headache when something needs to be fixed. And if people want to rent, then there need to be rentable spaces. And why would anyone want to make and maintain a rentable space if they didn’t expect to make money off of it?
The issue isnt that homes are viewed as investments, but that land is. If you build an apartment building and maintain it and provide good living conditions for your renters, then you should be able to make a profit, since you are doing valuable work. But if you buy a piece of land and then hold it for 20 years while everyone else builds homes and businesses around it, and then sell so someone can build an apartment on it, then you do not deserve to make a protfit because you didnt do anything. The value you gain from selling the land exists purely because everyone around you made the area a better place to live.
And that is why rents keep going up. In a functional market, sure, whatever, jack the rent up sky high - you will get hosed when all your renters move out, and you still have to pay for maintenance and upkeep and taxes. But in the current market, construction of new housing is constrained by government regulations and high land prices - and the land is expensive because everyone is only willing to sell for an exorbitant speculative price.
High home prices are what incentivize people to build more homes.
Why not? A huge chunk of the population wants to rent. Maybe they are going to college, or are moving to a new city and want to get a feel before buying, or maybe they just don’t want to deal with the headache when something needs to be fixed. And if people want to rent, then there need to be rentable spaces. And why would anyone want to make and maintain a rentable space if they didn’t expect to make money off of it?
The issue isnt that homes are viewed as investments, but that land is. If you build an apartment building and maintain it and provide good living conditions for your renters, then you should be able to make a profit, since you are doing valuable work. But if you buy a piece of land and then hold it for 20 years while everyone else builds homes and businesses around it, and then sell so someone can build an apartment on it, then you do not deserve to make a protfit because you didnt do anything. The value you gain from selling the land exists purely because everyone around you made the area a better place to live.
And that is why rents keep going up. In a functional market, sure, whatever, jack the rent up sky high - you will get hosed when all your renters move out, and you still have to pay for maintenance and upkeep and taxes. But in the current market, construction of new housing is constrained by government regulations and high land prices - and the land is expensive because everyone is only willing to sell for an exorbitant speculative price.