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Comment by humanwhosits | Hacker News Reader

Why does anyone let non-resident people buy residential housing?

That's the wrong question. If you sell housing to non-resident people, you receive money to build more housing. The question should be:

Why does anybody limit supply of housing to the point that prices rise?

The French did a bad job at building satellite cities, but done right, you could connect new housing to the city center like the original Los Angeles street cars.

If jobs don't pay much then you also don't pay much to the builders of new houses which makes them affordable.

You're conflating different values of "you". If I sell my house to a non-resident person and receive money, why should I use that money to build more housing, rather than a Ferrari? Meanwhile, the people who actually build the houses aren't the ones selling all the existing stock in the most desirable locations. They are stuck building suburban sprawl because that's where the empty space is.

'You' was meant in a general way. Somebody sells a house, the money exchanges hands several times, and then somebody else can build a new house - unless the money ends up in Maranello.

The desirable locations are a renewable resource. Portugal could build new desirable areas. They could even turn this into a recurring business and sell them to international investors, too. Instead of building suburban sprawl they can build more urban clusters.

I don't think it is. If you can't own the property or have to pay extreme taxes you will definitely think twice about moving there or buying up real estate. Make it -hurt-. Then only billionaires can afford to live there. Problem solved, there aren't that many billionaires. Or simply outlaw it. I don't know why that is hard? I mean they own their country. No one has a right to buy property there other than the Portuguese if they just say no.

not every country does allow it, but you don't have to buy to cause a problem for locals - just be willing to pay more rent than a local can afford is enough of a problem to price others(locals) out.

Yeah, tie the serfs to their land. I thought that went away with the medieval times?

Banning international sales is a politically damaging move because it would crash the market value of existing housing, affecting those residents who own one (or more), particularly if they're on a mortgage. It also reduces the tax income from properties and propert sales. Banks probably wouldn't be too happy either that the security on the loans no longer cover the outstanding balance.

Things will probably shift when the proportion of renters significantly outnumber the home owners.

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