Hacker News Reader

Comment by klntsky | Hacker News Reader

> he was not interested in developing the stairwell in order to sell it: “I don’t want to contribute to increasing the prices of rent and housing for people. I don’t think it’s net-positive for society.

How is taking risk trying to increase the amount of wealth not positive? I would understand if he said "I have a better plan for this place than developing it for sale", but this line of thinking...

View on HN

> I would understand if he said "I have a better plan for this place than developing it for sale", but this line of thinking...

But that is what he says. Earlier in the article it describes exactly what he plans to do with it. Namely “hoping to get permission from the local council to turn it into a pop-up shop, office or “live-work space” that entrepreneurs can use – potentially for up to a month at a time – free of charge.”

Because his positive is providing a free space for people to build businesses not to immediately enrich himself. He said “I have a better plan than developing it” without having to say that and making a statement about the state of rent pricing in the UK.

What concerns you about this line of thinking? Without it we wouldn’t have food banks that could service 100s of people, why not just build another cafe where there is a food bank and give 5 people a job rather than 100s food?

Both need to exist (sadly for the food banks) in this world.

It is a weird line of reasoning though. Converting this to a living space isn't the same as buy to let etc, you'd be creating new housing where there isn't any.

The issue in the UK isn’t specifically a lack of housing, if a home builder built a new estate of houses, only a small proportion have to be affordable housing, the rest come in at the ridiculous prices already in place locally. A business building 200 new houses in an area won’t bring down the house prices down at all.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com