this doesn't work ANYWHERE and never has. it merely feeds scarcity and raises rents in anything economically or physically adjacent. it feeds urban blight, and does nothing to make private ownership more likely.
> 3. 100% capital gains tax
why? why would someone make an investment in something for 0% return? that's just entirely silly. great way to ensure that any good, mediocre, or even tolerable landlords exit immediately (being replaced by predators).
how about some taxes on non-owner occupied or short term rentals (Air BnB)?
maybe something like a land-value tax on under-utilized housing? with a close-to-ZERO capital gains tax. encourage investment, upkeep and providing housing. encourage vs. discourage sales to individuals.
graduated taxes based on number of units to discourage large holdings and encourage small.
"Roads are made, streets are made, services are improved, electric light turns night into day, water is brought from reservoirs a hundred miles off in the mountains -- and all the while the landlord sits still. Every one of those improvements is effected by the labor and cost of other people and the taxpayers. To not one of those improvements does the land monopolist, as a land monopolist, contribute, and yet by every one of them the value of his land is enhanced. He renders no service to the community, he contributes nothing to the general welfare, he contributes nothing to the process from which his own enrichment is derived."
Perhaps there were no kind streets in the UK 90 years ago but that last sentence is the opposite of my experience. I have rented many properties over the decades in some of the roughest neighborhoods and I have never had a landlord that matched that description. If I did I could just leave. If they are a real a*hole then they risk vandalism to their valued property or a lawsuit.
Usually when I meet someone who has a "nightmare" landlord they usually don't have basic handy skills or are petty/greedy/dumb/nightmare people. The article drives this home citing a "100% capital gains tax" i.e., landlords should work for them for free. There is no interest in fairness and no brain cells fire when it comes to having empathy for the other side. Just a sprinkling of "me" neurons and not much else.
perhaps England has a way of doing this. in the US it looks like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pruitt%E2%80%93Igoe
> 2. Rent control, rent control, rent control.
this doesn't work ANYWHERE and never has. it merely feeds scarcity and raises rents in anything economically or physically adjacent. it feeds urban blight, and does nothing to make private ownership more likely.
> 3. 100% capital gains tax
why? why would someone make an investment in something for 0% return? that's just entirely silly. great way to ensure that any good, mediocre, or even tolerable landlords exit immediately (being replaced by predators).
how about some taxes on non-owner occupied or short term rentals (Air BnB)?
maybe something like a land-value tax on under-utilized housing? with a close-to-ZERO capital gains tax. encourage investment, upkeep and providing housing. encourage vs. discourage sales to individuals.
graduated taxes based on number of units to discourage large holdings and encourage small.