Economics

1691 readers

1 users here now

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

371

Landlords should have to pay income tax on their rental properties regardless of whether they're rented out or not. (gothamist.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

111 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Why? Because apparently they need some more incentive to keep units occupied. Also, even though a property might be vacant, there's still imputed rental income there. Its owner is just receiving it in the form of enjoying the unit for himself instead of receiving an actual rent check from a tenant. That imputed rent ought to be taxed like any other income.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@CrimeDad @Coreidan I don't believe this, but I will give it a go in trying to steelman this argument.

If landlords and real estate developers see a sector specific decrease in returns then they would decrease the capital in the sector and thus decrease the housing units made available for rent.

This theory ignores the real world where developers opted-out of low-income housing in favor of luxury real estate that either remains vacant or unoccupied while the owner uses it as value storage

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

TIL what steelmanning is.

At the end of the day, I don't think the landlord problem will be fixed by adjusting incentives alone. They have to be combined with a massive project to build lots of publicly owned housing and the supporting infrastructure.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

@CrimeDad can I introduce you to Singapore with 80% owned housing units by government

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are there some significant contradictions to their program? I'm not really familiar with Singapore or their housing policies, but it seems like they have a pretty low homelessness rate of 0.02%, which I suppose is a good sign. I know they have a very high population density, so maybe the high portion of government ownership helps with efficiency.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

@CrimeDad the low homelessness is due to the highest rate of public housing outside of self-identified socialist countries. The first several decades public housing was primarily for relocated squatters and shanty inhabitants, but since the 1980s they've promoted it for middle class and upper middle class improving the public housing stock.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Decreased capital in sector means landlords own fewer rental properties. Would this make home ownership more accessible?