Current Events > Berlin residents vote to nationalise mega-landlords

(+) Yeah! (+)

Anteaterking posted...

Is that incompatible with the belief behind the bill though?

Isn't the motivation behind "stop mega landlords from owning everything" that you're viewing housing as a important thing for people to have rather than an investment opportunity?

I'm not against the spirit of what they're trying to achieve. The problem is people will readily accept something extremely damaging or destructive just because of that spirit. A shitty proposal with good intentions is still a shitty proposal, and people shouldn't readily accept something that could have massive, sweeping negative effects simply because they like the messaging.

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Anteaterking posted...

Isn't the motivation behind "stop mega landlords from owning everything" that you're viewing housing as a important thing for people to have rather than an investment opportunity?

Motivation and outcomes are two very different things.

s0nicfan posted...

A shitty proposal with good intentions is still a shitty proposal, and people shouldn't readily accept something that could have massive, sweeping negative effects simply because they like the messaging.

If you're ever indignant about "Okay, but here's what's going to actually happen" replies, then you haven't quite thought it through enough.

wow a dumb shock post must be a day that ends in y

shockthemonkey posted...

Oh no prices for property might go down this is terrible I am so upset

When property values go down, property taxes go down.

At the very least, this sends a message that something needs to be done
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s0nicfan posted...

Given that this is a non-binding resolution, which effectively acts as an early warning to these companies, won't this cause a complete housing market collapse as every single one of these businesses dumps as many properties as possible to try and get under that threshold before the government takes it for, according to the article, well below market value?

if they all try to sell a bunch of properties at once the market value is gonna drop anyway


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thronedfire2 posted...

if they all try to sell a bunch of properties at once the market value is gonna drop anyway

I'm leaning towards fucktons of sockpuppet GmbH companies getting created.

thronedfire2 posted...

if they all try to sell a bunch of properties at once the market value is gonna drop anyway

Think of it like this: If you had a hundred properties and the state told you they were going to take all of them and give you 50% of the value, but before then you can sell them and the first 20 or 30 get 100% of the value, and then 90%, and then 80%.. etc. You're still going to get far more from dumping it yourself. Plus you may still choose to keep 10 or 20, or maybe you demolish all of them to make high-end condos that you can sell.

But hypothetically, even if this approach causes the market to collapse just as badly, you're still choosing between one market collapse or another. There's no world where this sort of maneuver actually makes things better, which is the issue.

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