Reason I’m asking is because I have an aunt that owns like maybe 3 - 5 (not sure the exact amount) small townhouses around the city (well, when I say “city” think of like the areas around a city where theres no tall buildings, but only small 2-3 stories single family homes in the neighborhood) and have these houses up for rent, and honestly, my aunt and her husband doesn’t seem like a terrible people. They still work a normal job, and have to pay taxes like everyone else have to. They still have their own debts to pay. I’m not sure exactly how, but my parents say they did a combination of saving up money and taking loans from banks to be able to buy these properties, fix them, then put them up for rent. They don’t overcharge, and usually charge slightly below the market to retain tenants, and fix things (or hire people to fix things) when their tenants request them.
I mean, they are just trying to survive in this capitalistic world. They wanna save up for retirement, and fund their kids to college, and leave something for their kids, so they have less of stress in life. I don’t see them as bad people. I mean, its not like they own multiple apartment buildings, or doing excessive wealth hoarding.
Do leftists mean people like my aunt too? Or are they an exception to the “landlords are bad” sentinment?
No, landlords earn money by providing a service. Properties don’t maintain themselves.
Taking away the opportunity of home ownership is not a service.
So let’s say a landlord sells their property and somebody else buys it to live in.
Where do the original renters live now?
Or in a rental property, who is paying to maintain it if the landlord is not charging above their mortgage costs?
Or why would a landlord take on the risk of loaning an expensive asset to somebody at cost knowing they may not get paid? Or the boiler stops working and they have to spend thousands fixing it without any risk to the tenant?
If their rent went toward equity in the home they were renting, when the landlord sells, an equitable portion of the cash made during the sale would go to the renters. Ideally, the renters could then use that nest egg of cash to put a down payment on a home.
If a person is paying money for access to and upkeep of a particular home, I think it’s very fair for them to build equity in that home proportional to what they pay in rent. If landlords find that too risky or not lucrative enough, well, they don’t have to be landlords.
So let’s say the landlords don’t want to do this and sell up, or at least try to… who can afford to buy now? Yes the prices will come down but that doesn’t remove the need for a deposit/downpayment - yes that will be smaller but how is somebody going to save that money still? Where do they live while doing that? That is still the biggest problem… the UK does have a help to buy scheme where the government owns part of your property (acts as deposit) and you pay the mortgage on the rest, but you also pay some rent to the government for their share.
The whole system needs overhauling to make it work these changes alone won’t sort it out.
Correct, wholeheartedly agree.
That’s not what rental property owners do. They provide housing, not take it away.
Builders provide housing. Landlords are nothing more than a middle man.
Builders build housing. Then they sell it. Rental property owners provide housing.
They literally do not provide housing. If they did, there wouldn’t be a housing shortage.
There’s a housing shortage due to not having enough housing for the people who want it. Read the dozens and dozens of articles over the past decade about how the United States hasn’t been building enough housing to keep up with demand.
Families don’t live together like they used to. People are living longer. People don’t want to live with others.