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Comment by Manuel_D | Hacker News Reader

Because without landlords there's no place to rent. People don't seem to comprehend the fact that if it's not profitable to run an apartment, then those units are going to be taken off the market.

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Are you implying that housing just disappears if there aren’t landlord to monopolize it? That’s hilarious. Remove landlords and now you have housing that can be purchased by residents through a bank loan. Can’t afford the down payment? No problem, a government program can fund that just like PPP loans. At the end of the day landlords are just parasites who exploit the poor and middle class by monopolizing housing. There is no need for them, anyone who can rent can, by definition, buy the property they are renting. Otherwise the landlord wouldn’t be renting to them.

If it is a large building then you run into the terrible governance problems of condominiums where pensioners will never vote to pay for repairs that will prevent the building from collapsing, killing them. See also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932022_Chinese_prop...

If anything, condominiums are a scam right up there with Amway, Bitcoin, and FTX and ought to be banned.

God can you imagine if every rental property suddenly went on the market to buy and there were rules where you can only own property you actually live in full time. Would be amazing. The housing supply in my area would legitimately triple.

> Are you implying that housing just disappears if there aren’t landlord to monopolize it? That’s hilarious. Remove landlords and now you have housing that can be purchased by residents through a bank loan.

And then do what? The usual answer is to convert it to condos. Most people aren't interested in personally occupying an entire apartment building. And if you decide to rent out the units, congratulations now you're a landlord!

> No problem, a government program can fund that just like PPP loans.

You realize this is having the government subsidize landlords to take rental units off the market and convert units to condos? For all the ire you seem to harbor towards landlords you're awfully eager to give them government money.

And do what? Just sit on it? No, it'll be sold for a lower price to someone who needs a home.

In practice it will be rented short-term on AirBnB and its ilk. That is more profitable than long-term rental, apparently. (I don't know the details, I've just heard that asserted; but AirBnB et al. decreasing the supply of housing is a real thing.)

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