This is one of the reason why I think the price of property should be regulated somehow by the government. The cost/ tax of a second house should be exponentially higher to discourage people doing this, so that a renting a second house should be a financial catastrophe. Capitalism, free market does not work, especially for basic human needs (food, shelter, health, energy, and if I may say education).

I myself bought my house 2 years ago, and the price was already ridiculous. Let's say I paid almost 100k€ more than the estimated worth of the house (cause of market price). I'm pretty sure the price will collapse after some time. The price can increase 30-40 percent in 3-5 years. It's crazy. The money invested here is much higher than I did when I was renting an apartment tho.

[–] pascal@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

One political party suggested that recently in my country. Nothing happened because every study showed it will just increase the rents.

[–] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I don’t think the government should control the price. That just leads to problems. The government should control supply, by changing zoning laws from single family to multi-family. It should also fund building new housing units that can be sold or rented. This is how Singapore solved its housing crisis. We should build denser. There is no reason to have a housing shortage in America when we have so much land. We just use it terribly.

[–] andy_wijaya_med@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

The Singaporean are forced to do that because of how small their land is. In places where single family unit shouldn't be a problem (Europe or States), it shouldn't be forced to make the people to live in a multi family unit.

Owning an extra house should be punished (financially) to discourage people buying houses only to rent them away.