It would be massively more simple, and more profitable to government, to simply levy a colossal tax on property owners who leave their rental properties empty for more than six months or so.
Ah, they’re trying that in Portugal. It doesn’t work. They’re going even as far as expropriation the houses from the owner, forcing them to rent at state agreed rates.
My wild guess? The only solution is reducing inflation to the negative to make money more valuable.
Deflation can be even more destructive than inflation. It would basically make all kinds of debt more expensive, to which real estate is particularly sensitive. There’s a chance that could force over leveraged property owners to sell, but with more expensove debt, there will be fewer buyers and it would tend to be those who can take on the higher risk (aka the already wealthy).
All that is to say, I don’t have a solution either (especiallly if high taxes on non-dwelling properties doesn’t seem to be making an impact), but deflation is almost never good…
It would be massively more simple, and more profitable to government, to simply levy a colossal tax on property owners who leave their rental properties empty for more than six months or so.
Ah, they’re trying that in Portugal. It doesn’t work. They’re going even as far as expropriation the houses from the owner, forcing them to rent at state agreed rates.
My wild guess? The only solution is reducing inflation to the negative to make money more valuable.
Deflation can be even more destructive than inflation. It would basically make all kinds of debt more expensive, to which real estate is particularly sensitive. There’s a chance that could force over leveraged property owners to sell, but with more expensove debt, there will be fewer buyers and it would tend to be those who can take on the higher risk (aka the already wealthy).
All that is to say, I don’t have a solution either (especiallly if high taxes on non-dwelling properties doesn’t seem to be making an impact), but deflation is almost never good…