Comment on @jack_toohey on why the housing crisis is not caused by migration

• Steve@startrek.website ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  If its just a speculative asset to be traded back and forth you dont want the extra hassle of managing renters.

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  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Houses aren’t a speculative asset like shares or gold. They take time and effort to sell, and it’s costly.

    Point is, you wouldn’t intend to sell in less than several years. Rent might be $50k a year. No investor is leaving that on the table.

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    • eureka@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I had a quick search, this isn’t something I’ve properly looked into, but empty homes are valuable:

      Speculative real estate investment can lead to homes being left vacant for quite long periods of time, as in some cases this helps to preserve their condition for resale and saves the investor from having to shell out for upkeep and maintenance. In cities with high-value real-estate like Melbourne, Sydney, New York and London, housing prices have risen much faster than wages, and many investors know that simply buying and holding property can be a more effective investment strategy than buying to rent. As Karl Fitzgerald of the Australian non-profit Grounded Community Land Trusts and member of GEHN notes:

      ‘If you consider that there’s been an 18% increase in Australian property values this year, that’s triple the rent you could make, so why bother renting it out?’ (GEHN 2022)

      Jack Portman - “What is the value in an empty home? A perspective from Action on Empty Homes and the Global Empty Homes Network” www.tandfonline.com/doi/…/13604813.2024.2390754#d…

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      • Salvo@aussie.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        This is why there have to be significant taxes on vacant rentals (including short term rentals like AirBNB).

        It has to be made more expensive to keep a property vacant than to rent it out and maintain it, without increasing rent.

        Rent assistance is just corporate welfare that drives up rent.

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      • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I don’t think that says what you think it does.

        It doesn’t suggest that speculative vacancies are a driver of the housing crisis in Australia.

        “Buying to Rent” means buying with no intention to sell after a given period of time. It means making an investment focused on the annual rent return.

        Speculative real estate investment can lead to homes being left vacant for quite long periods of time

        Often a speculative investor might leave a home vacant while they list it for sale. That’s not the same as purchasing a property with the intention of leaving it vacant.

        in some cases this helps to preserve their condition for resale and saves the investor from having to shell out for upkeep and maintenance

        This doesn’t make any sense at all. An investor reluctant to “shell out” for upkeep and maintenance is exactly the type of investor that needs the regular rent income to help cover the other costs of ownership like rates, body corporate, interest, et cetera.

        Census data shows dwelling occupancy rates have been consistent over the last 15 years:

        Image

        Note that these rates do not imply “speculative vacancy” is ~10%, as there are many reasons a property may be vacant on census night. They do however demonstrate that vacancy is not the cause of the current housing crisis.

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• glimse@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  What generally happens to prices when there’s a high demand and a low supply

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  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That would only work if you owned every house.

    Like if you buy a house, why would you forego the rent income just so everyone else’s rent increases?

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• Nalivai@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Why do they get all the money and not buy anything with it? Billionaires are horders, they don’t use what they hoard.

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  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Billionaires dont leave their billions sitting in a bank. Of course they buy things with it.

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    • Nalivai@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      They demonstrably don’t. They “buy” assets and stocks and some shit, but that’s just another form of hoarding the money. They don’t buy things, there is not enough things in the world to buy for them, and that’s not what they’re after. Elongated Muskrat bought a fucking twitter for an inflated price, and he’s still a richest motherfucker in the world.

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      • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Do you really think a billionaire would be actively involved in buying houses to hoard them?

        They wouldn’t give a fuck. If they have excess money they’re not looking at the stock market, they would just transfer the excess money to the trust that manages their excess money.

        Billionaires are a big problem, they shouldn’t exist, but you haven’t drawn a real connection between billionaires and the Australian housing problem.

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