ID: A Sophie Labelle 4 panel comic featuring Stephie in different poses, saying:
Landlords do not provide housing.
They buy and Hold more space than they need for themselves.
Then, they create a false scarcity and profit off of it.
What they’re doing is literally the opposite of providing housing.
Say a renter starts doing good job and money wise for themselves. They invest their surplus in investment options like mutual funds and deposits and so on. Then their surplus is enough to invest into real estate. Should they not?
If by “invest in real estate” you mean purchase a property that they will then live in while it appreciates in value, effectively making that property a hedge against inflation, then yes absolutely.
And if after doing that they decide to purchase a second property to rent out, then sure, why not?
But no individual should be allowed to own more than two, maybe three properties.
No corporation (or any legal entity other than a person) should be allowed to own a single-family home or any other classification of single-unit residential property.
And banks should not be able to deny someone a mortgage if the monthly payment would be equal to or less than what that person is paying in rent.
No. Housing is a human right, not a commodity. A renter going on to invest in real estate is being the crab in a bucket climbing over others then pulling back the ladder that capitalism wants them to be.