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this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Economics
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There is a long history of passing costs onto the consumer. If costs go up for empty units, rents go up on occupied units to cover and / or recoup those costs.
This would also disincentives property owners from doing renovations by adding additional costs, since the units need to be vacant during construction.
Without functional regulations and protections around rents and renters, all of the pressure will just gets pushed down stream to impact the most vulnerable.
That's certainly a risk, but it might be easier said than done to raise rents if some landlords decide to bring their warehoused units back to market. Of course, if they're colluding and what's actually going on is a capital strike, then all bets are off. One way or another, capital needs to be disciplined.
Absolutely, we need regulations to protect tenants and keep rents under control. We also need a massive effort to increase the supply of publicly owned housing. I think part of this has to include public acquisition of private housing, but it will help to start squeezing the landlords before hand with various measures in order to minimize the expenditure.