alt Hacker NewsWe don't always have to consider the apparently very fragile and fickle motivations of investors. Social housing can and has worked very well in many cases.
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Seems like a non sequitur?
If you want people to be able to live in a place without paying rent, please just outright gift that to them and make that official policy. That may or may not be good policy, but at least it's honest.
But if the deal that people agreed to is to pay rent, then the courts should also enforce that.
You can get from one regime to the other, by eg buying out the landlords or outright expropriating them. But if you want to do that, please just advocate so outright.
Social housing may or may not be a good idea. But it's a completely separate issue from non-enforcement of existing rental contracts.
Where has it been successful, and what counts as success in that? I genuinely do not know.
Unfortunately, most housing "investors" are people who bought a home 10-30 years ago and will be furious if they can't sell at a large profit compared to what they bought it for.
Sadly, a lot of places (Netherlands and Ireland come to mind) _discourage_ you from investing in things like stocks, and _encourage_ you to "invest" in a primary residence, making the problem even worse.