The primary driver of my view on real estate is that it should not be treated as an investment grade security. Attempts to leverage real estate as an investment grade security should be outlawed by the government.
Owners of rental units should be limited to a maximum number of units at any given time. For an individual I would say 5 to 10 units. For a corporation, I would want it limited to something like 50.
The goal being to enforce more competition and avoiding consolidation.
A terrible practice owners of rental units use is to keep available units off market in hopes of getting a better price in the short term future (typically 3-12 months). This practice should be made illegal. If you own rental units, you should be forced to list them when vacant.
Foreign ownership should also be seriously curtailed. Taxes should be extreme for units that aren't used except for 2 weeks a year. NYC should be for New Yorkers, Americans, immigrants, and people who choose to come to this city and create their life here, not for those who fly in on a private jet to stay 3 of the year. They can stay in a hotel.
I also don't believe owners of rental units should be able to own them indefinitely. Owners of rental units should be forced to sell to after they have recouped their investment and I'd say 3 times their investment cost. This creates enough upside (300% return) to incentivize purchasing of units to rent which thus incentivizes building.
After that point, the owner should be compelled to offer to renters the ability to buy their apartment or sell to another owner. Similar to how the velocity of money helps encourage economic activitiy, this is creating a velocity of housing.
I have no problem with individuals looking to create a passive income stream, and this should be allowed but up to a point. Similarly we need a system that will incentivize development of new buildings and construction, so there has to be enough upside opportunity down the stack from the owner to the builder to the banks financing it all. But it should be limited and real estate should not be treated as an investment grade security.
NYC apartment vacancy is at 4% compared to 6% nationally. The “vacant apartments and foreign owners are cashing rents to go up meme” is a straight up conspiracy theory.
We need to build more units. It’s really that simple. Any regulation that leads to less units should be heavily reconsidered. Limiting the number of units someone can own would be horrible for increasing supply.
You are confused about the economic dynamics behind high rents. There are already tens (hundreds?) of thousands of landlords around New York City and no single landlord controls more than a tiny fraction of the housing stock or has even the tiniest bit of price setting power. The problem
isn’t cartels keeping prices artificially high, it’s immense demand running up against zero new supply.
Owners of rental units should be limited to a maximum number of units at any given time. For an individual I would say 5 to 10 units. For a corporation, I would want it limited to something like 50.
The goal being to enforce more competition and avoiding consolidation.
A terrible practice owners of rental units use is to keep available units off market in hopes of getting a better price in the short term future (typically 3-12 months). This practice should be made illegal. If you own rental units, you should be forced to list them when vacant.
Foreign ownership should also be seriously curtailed. Taxes should be extreme for units that aren't used except for 2 weeks a year. NYC should be for New Yorkers, Americans, immigrants, and people who choose to come to this city and create their life here, not for those who fly in on a private jet to stay 3 of the year. They can stay in a hotel.
I also don't believe owners of rental units should be able to own them indefinitely. Owners of rental units should be forced to sell to after they have recouped their investment and I'd say 3 times their investment cost. This creates enough upside (300% return) to incentivize purchasing of units to rent which thus incentivizes building.
After that point, the owner should be compelled to offer to renters the ability to buy their apartment or sell to another owner. Similar to how the velocity of money helps encourage economic activitiy, this is creating a velocity of housing.
I have no problem with individuals looking to create a passive income stream, and this should be allowed but up to a point. Similarly we need a system that will incentivize development of new buildings and construction, so there has to be enough upside opportunity down the stack from the owner to the builder to the banks financing it all. But it should be limited and real estate should not be treated as an investment grade security.