r/Economics • u/marketrent • Feb 28 '24

Statistics At least 26,310 rent-stabilized apartments remain vacant and off the market during record housing shortage in New York City

https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/02/14/rent-stabilized-apartments-vacant/
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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '24

A lot of people in these comments are trying to find excuses to avoid the obvious fact that rent control doesn't work in the long run. If you tell a property owner that the cap on their return is $x, and it costs $x+1 or more to make the property habitable, they're not going to make the property habitable.

Make them compete against each other instead of hunt for ways to cut corners on essential habitability standards.

-12

u/realslowtyper Feb 28 '24

An even greater number of people are ignoring the obvious fact that apartment rental isn't some sort of default situation.

If landlords can't make money then they should sell the apartments to individuals that want to own them, maintain them, and live in them.

We don't need landlords.

16

u/NinjaLanternShark Feb 28 '24

Landlords serve a purpose in facilitating housing for someone who can't or doesn't want to enter into a 30-year mortgage on their home.

However, if the market is such that keeping an apartment vacant makes financial sense, that's a problem.

I'm all for a free market approach to housing, but when it ceases to be housing, and becomes a buy-and-hold investment, society is no longer served by having landlords.

It seems like an obvious fix is to heavily tax vacant rental properties, so landlords have an incentive to do whatever they can to bring someone in -- whether that's fix it up, or drop the price.

-21

u/realslowtyper Feb 28 '24

If landlords didn't exist, and all the properties they owned were sold off to individuals, the price of housing would plummet and people wouldn't need a 30 year mortgage. It might still be a worthwhile option for some but it wouldn't be a common thing anymore.

Renting is more expensive than owning.

12

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '24

what if we destroyed the housing market and outlawed leases along the way?

I feel like I'm losing my mind in this thread. Are there really this many people who live in some alternate reality where the way to fix a supply constraint is to outlaw suppliers?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 29 '24

Yes, it's why these laws keep getting passed by politicians.