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Comment by prvit | Hacker News Reader

Nothing wrong with renting, economies of scale make it cheaper than owning unless the government decides to ruin everything. (London vs Paris is a great example of this)

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How can renting from a middleman who owns it be possibly cheaper than owning it directly? Unless the middleman is a charity which rents at a loss.

Middleman maintaining 100 apartments can do so for less money per unit than the guy maintaining a single apartment.

Exactly. Economies of scale + the simple fact of things like a roof for 2+ story block of apartments is going to be far cheaper to replace than a roof for the same number of houses as units.

I wasn't aware that you couldn't own flats.

Wat? Is this skipping the real world of every condominium building apartment owner paying a maintenance fee and having a say in where/how the money gets allocated?

When you rent, you just give the power of choice away and have misaligned incentives (when you own, you give more of a shit than when you are merely extracting profit)

No, you’re ignoring all the maintenance your landlord would usually be responsible for.

Things like internal plumbing, internal wiring, air conditioning and appliances.

Why can't the owner pay a company to deal with that? You are conflating the part of the remuneration for the landlord that has to do with actual services rendered, with the part that simply has to do with the monopoly on capital rights.

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