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[-] BT_7274@lemmy.world 181 points 1 year ago

I work in this industry. The biggest problem with the software is it gave the management companies instant access to everyone else’s current prices. The industry has used “market surveys” for years but you had to actually call around and gather those prices yourself. It’s a very time consuming process so many only did their surveys sporadically.

With the software you had instant access to current price data and everyone pretty much raised their prices to match the market average. Then the newer/fancier properties saw the new higher average and thought “We’re a better property so we can raise our prices above the competition.” Which then led to a higher average that the rest then met again. Rinse and repeat and you have a de facto price fixing cartel.

[-] stella@lemm.ee 104 points 1 year ago

This is why 'competition lowers prices' is a load of bullshit.

Ya'll ever seen Walgreens and CVS? Same prices, right next to each other.

What about 2 gas station on opposite sides of the street, charging the exact same price for their fuel?

It's a gentleman's agreement at best, and a cartel at worst. Either way, no business is going to start an 'undercut war' because they don't want their opponents to do the same thing.

Here's another fine example: Nvidia and AMD. AMD releases worse GPUs, then just piggybacks off of Nvidia's ridiculous prices.

It's all a game to funnel as much money as possible to as few people as possible.

[-] BT_7274@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

While true, there are some markets where these properties are fighting for a very finite supply of tenants. If they see they are lagging behind in their leasing, they really don’t have any other choice than to lower their prices to make sure they don’t have any vacant units. The industry term is called “vacancy loss” and it’s the one thing the upper management money men actually fear. A unit without someone inside it is literally bleeding money from them so they’ll do nearly anything to fill it.

Hopefully soon they won’t be able to share their prices as easily and they’ll have to fight for their lives by lowering prices to fill vacancies before another property snaps them up.

[-] stella@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

there are some markets where these properties are fighting for a very finite supply of tenants.

True, but these aren't usually the markets in major cities. It's why rent is actually affordable outside of them.

[-] foyrkopp@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Office buildings would like a word with you.

It's the reason so many large corporations a talking about RTO, office real estate prices are set to plummet if everyone's keeping to WFH.

Sadly, that's only tangentially related to housing (although I believe to have read something about new subsidies for landlords converting office space into appartments).

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this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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