Yeah, I’ve been curious to see how Berlin ends up myself. It does seem weird that as a society we don’t question the premise that it’s ok for people to buy up as much real estate as they want. People will argue that the landlord is taking risk and supplies services, which is true to some extent, but also seems out of whack from literally every apartment I’ve ever lived in.
One landlord in Chicago never kept the heat on, or rather claimed that our unit was at the end of the heating line and it just didn’t get very hot, they couldn’t do anything about it. That was a cold winter. Another in Brooklyn would never fix anything, at all, and if they did it was because the ceiling in the bathroom had a pipe flooding us or some other emergency they couldn’t ignore.
There’s probably a middle path between owning dozens of units and only owning the building you live in.
> There’s probably a middle path between owning dozens of units and only owning the building you live in.
The problem isn't individuals owning a few units. It's big players owning thousands if not hundred thousands flats. Publicly traded companies, with investors waiting for returns/profits, very often foreign investors even...
I really don't like where this is going and frankly I have a hard time understanding how we came this low.
on the flip side, I would question the premise that owning the building you live in is a good thing to begin with. why is it good for people to have so much of their wealth tied up in a single property? why is it good for people to experience so much friction in moving around and trying different neighborhoods/cities?
imo the american obsession with homeownership is the root of many of our problems. I also notice a common theme in these comments. most of the complaints about landlords seem to come from people who rent older units in highly desirable cities. my renting experience in a cheaper city with lots of new buildings has been quite different.
One landlord in Chicago never kept the heat on, or rather claimed that our unit was at the end of the heating line and it just didn’t get very hot, they couldn’t do anything about it. That was a cold winter. Another in Brooklyn would never fix anything, at all, and if they did it was because the ceiling in the bathroom had a pipe flooding us or some other emergency they couldn’t ignore.
There’s probably a middle path between owning dozens of units and only owning the building you live in.