alt Hacker NewsWhat about a law that bans house ownership and rentals unless you are a physical person and not a company? What would be the cons of such a thing?
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You have over-simplified "ownership" into a thing that doesn't exist. Most Americans "own" their house in a complicated relationship between themselves, individually or jointly or as a family trust, and one of several monstrous global financial firms, each of which holds part of the interest.
It would dramatically reduce the availability of rental properties. So, if you really hate renters, it’s a good thing I guess.
Extremely low chance that I’m going to put my entire net worth on the line to own and rent out housing in my own name.
Exactly zero chance that I’ll do it in a multi-family or apartment building.
Holding these things in corporate title is sensible risk management and compartmentalization.
The fact that the number of houses owned by large corporations is so low as to be insignificant shows that it’s basically 0% of the cause. (I’m assuming you’re not against a landlord who owns a small number of properties forming an LLC, but mean companies that rent lots of properties.)
It is a supply issue caused by local building codes and zoning. Full stop. Everything else is just pretending to do something about the problem, and corporations are just scapegoats.