Comment on Argentina got rid of rent control. Housing supply skyrocketed
Wilzax@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Housing supply skyrocketing means that people were evicted from their homes when their controlled rent increased to an amount they could not afford.
This is a bad thing. People who lose their housing cannot effectively work jobs and support the economy.
If you read TFA you would have noticed many landlords refused to rent properties.
The law aimed to provide tenants with more financial security, but by the end of last year, an estimated one in seven homes in Buenos Aires was sitting empty as landlords chose not to rent them out in Argentine pesos. Deposits were capped, and it was nearly impossible to end tenancies early.
We can observe housing supply dropping in places where rent controls were recently introduced like Berlin though
Amoxtli@thelemmy.club 2 months ago
Landlords won’t offer rent if the rent is below what they think is profitable. You didn’t read the article, obviously.
Wilzax@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If the rent is no longer profitable, the landlord’s best interest is to sell the property. They are not compelled to maintain ownership of a building full of unprofitable people.
intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Unless of course they cannot sell it because others won’t buy it.
Unprofitable for Landlord A means unprofitable for Landlord B.
When property is profitable, housing construction becomes profitable. When housing construction is profitable, housing construction happens.
A free market is based on consent. When people want housing, that is the market force that makes housing worth creating. But only if consent is allowed to happen. Without it, there is no force that transmits one person’s yearning for housing into another’s motivation to construct it.
The government can of course force people to build housing, but the whole thing is less efficient than when everyone is involved in economic interactions they consented to.
Wilzax@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If they can’t sell it because nobody will buy it, lower the price. It’s basic economics.