this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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For people to build or buy their own homes they need to be able to afford them. They can't, which is why they rent. If landlords don't offer flats for rent anymore, people don't magically have more money to buy or build.
Corporation and private investors build rental properties because they aim to profit from them, and if that isn't the case anymore, their construction activity slows down and then stops. As can currently be seen e.g. in Germany.
The only way to effectively counter rising rents in cities is public, non profit construction and decentralization efforts (so people don't all flock to the few places that are hip to live in).
Well, no, flat prices wound crash in that case & again be affordable. It's not like project devs wouldn't build stuff & sell flats, it's just that the financing wouldn't come from financial industry directly (but via retail mortgages). Also less inflationary pressure on building materials and labor.
And ... saying that ppl can't afford to buy so they rent is bs if the rent is higher that the mortgage would have been.
That's why socialist countries have less homeless ppl (and more homeowners) and why in a free market you would want to have homeless people (otherwise you are not maximizing your yield/rent).
Only if the supply exceeded the demand which just can't be assumed - that's the reason prices are high in cities in the first place. Construction prices have no reason to drop as they are driven by labour and materials. So only wealthy people and companies would have the means to build and companies wouldn't do so for lack of profits in renting.
Which might happen in some weird fringe cases, but if the owner knows basic maths it usually won't. You'd set rent at least high enough to repay your own loan on the property and make some profit.
And if it were true why not buy right now? Because the bank won't give you a loan. And that too wouldn't suddenly change.