Get rid of landlords...
Get rid of landlords...
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Landlords definitely have a place, predatory landlords, no.
Exactly. There are always going to be people who take advantage of others for their own personal gain. It doesn't mean that everyone who owns property and rents it out is an evil scum bag.
Indeed. A lot of people aren't in a situation where they want to buy and maintain a house, so having a healthy rental market is very important for every country.
But rental markets should be regulated to ensure everyone can find affordable housing without being taken advantage of.
Sure but how are they regulated is my potential issue. There is so much cronyism that could make it worse. Then only ones that give money to certain politicians will get the good landlord gigs, political opponents will get the boot. You would need an independent board in every area that knows the local housing situation intimatly and not career politicians either. These would have to be regular folks that would probably need to be voted in, not appointed. Or maybe nominated by local residents.
I don't think it has to be that complex. Here in the Netherlands, we have a system that non-luxury houses get points and the number of points determines the maximum rent.
It's not perfect, but for many decades it worked quite well.
A reform is now being proposed to extend the system to middle class housing.
Complex and subjective systems are risky, precisely because they provide opportunities to cheat.
Simple is best.
Simpler is always best but we have 41 states that are larger then the Netherlands. That is a wide range of markets.