gravitas_deficiency , 7 months ago

The problem is that (at least in America) tons of banks and corporations are buying up HUGE swaths of housing - single family homes, condos, apartments, etc - and they’re building, or have already built, businesses models centered on permanently renting those residences. Here is an article, and here is an excerpt:

Real estate investors bought a record 18.4 percent of the homes that were sold in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2021, up from 12.6 percent a year earlier, according to the realty company Redfin.

And in some markets, especially in the relatively affordable Sun Belt metro areas, their share is far higher.

In Charlotte and Atlanta, investors purchased more than 30 percent of the homes sold in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to Redfin. In Jacksonville, Fla., Las Vegas, and Phoenix, they bought just under 30 percent.

For those in the back: two years ago, corporations bought around 30% of available homes, and particularly focused on markets where home prices were reasonable, thus further exacerbating the housing crisis and wealth disparity in the long term.

New law proposal: the only type of corporation allowed to own a house is a bank, and then only under the strictures of a mortgage held by a private individual (or, logically and necessarily, through default and foreclosure). Additionally, houses repossessed through default may not be rented, as long as the bank is the sole holder of the property.