The issue here is, and this has happened before, investors will either sell the property, meaning those not in a position to buy are screwed, or they will do the bare minimum to keep the building functioning, as there is no incentive to improve the building.
Good. Investors rather than inhabitants owning homes is a huge part of why rent and property prices have skyrocketed.
they will do the bare minimum to keep the building functioning
They already do that in order to maximize profits.
there is no incentive to improve the building.
Ever heard of this new thing called laws and regulations? It’s the only “incentive” that actually DOES work to correct the behavior of greedy slumlords.
Letting them keep increasing the already obscenely high rents just means more profits for them in return for no benefit for anyone else.
They already only do the bare minimum. You practically have to take your landlord to court to get any meaningful fixes in your apartment. All new developments are built like shit, developers cut corners anywhere they can. After the building is built the developer “vanishes” so there isn’t anyone to sue when there is something seriously wrong with the building. They just open a new throw away LLC later and put up another shit building. You must not live in NYC
Problem easily solved. Is a building not being utilized? Seize it and pay the owner fair market value, then have the city administrate it and charge just enough rent to cover expenses of maintenance and improvement and administration.
To give the current owners the chance to do the right thing, and make a small but reasonable gain from their property.
And to make it more palatable to the general public. It’s a lot easier to convince people to go along with it if you’re seizing empty unused properties that are only empty and unused because the owner refuses to rent them if they’re not making excessive profit.
Then lift the freeze once there’s no profit left anymore, or just keep the freeze for existing buildings. Limit the rent increase etc.
The issue here is, and this has happened before, investors will either sell the property, meaning those not in a position to buy are screwed, or they will do the bare minimum to keep the building functioning, as there is no incentive to improve the building.
Good. Investors rather than inhabitants owning homes is a huge part of why rent and property prices have skyrocketed.
They already do that in order to maximize profits.
Ever heard of this new thing called laws and regulations? It’s the only “incentive” that actually DOES work to correct the behavior of greedy slumlords.
Letting them keep increasing the already obscenely high rents just means more profits for them in return for no benefit for anyone else.
Sell to whom?
Owner-occupiers typically.
That sounds like it’s solving the problem, then.
If you can afford to buy a property, sure.
How would somebody buy it if nobody could afford it?
The banks, of course. They’ll buy anything.
And what do they do with that investment?
Sell to Aquaman.
Oh, that’s very simple. Warehousing! They need storage space for their gold, and their typical warehouses aren’t big enough to hold it all.
They already only do the bare minimum. You practically have to take your landlord to court to get any meaningful fixes in your apartment. All new developments are built like shit, developers cut corners anywhere they can. After the building is built the developer “vanishes” so there isn’t anyone to sue when there is something seriously wrong with the building. They just open a new throw away LLC later and put up another shit building. You must not live in NYC
Problem easily solved. Is a building not being utilized? Seize it and pay the owner fair market value, then have the city administrate it and charge just enough rent to cover expenses of maintenance and improvement and administration.
So why not skip the rent control and go straight to this?
Fair market value is much, much lower 9n rent controlled property
Yeah, a government deliberately lowering property values so they can buy them cheap isn’t a great precedent.
Won’t somebody think of Blackrock?
It’s not great, It’s fantastic. Let the scumbags who own property they don’t use lose money!
thale same strategy will be used to build more freeways through low income neighborhoods
To give the current owners the chance to do the right thing, and make a small but reasonable gain from their property.
And to make it more palatable to the general public. It’s a lot easier to convince people to go along with it if you’re seizing empty unused properties that are only empty and unused because the owner refuses to rent them if they’re not making excessive profit.