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Comment by grecy | Hacker News Reader

We wouldn’t let a private company buy all the drinking water or food so they can profit from it, and we shouldn’t let them do it with housing.

Only humans should be allowed to own residential property and we should limit how many so there enough to go around, and so they are affordable.

Housing can not be simultaneously affordable and a good investment.

Clearly, they are doing this because it’s a good investment, which means houses are unaffordable for people who need a place to live.

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These companies own 0.64% of Metro Atlanta homes. Whereas Walmart owns 25% of the US grocery market.

What are you worried about here?

I'm worried about the housing crisis that is gripping so many countries where regular people are utterly incapable of buying houses because they're wildly unaffordable and there are not enough.

Private companies can profit of commercial real estate. They can profit off manufacturing and consulting.

They should not be allowed to profit on thing basic essentials that people in our society need to live when doing so means some people simply miss out.

How would you feel if we were at a buffet for every meal and a private company took so much food you and your family got barely scraps, day after day, year after year?

That is PRECISELY what we're doing with housing.

We don't worry about food because we have an abundance of it, maybe not quite at the right ratios but enough that basically nobody starves. So we should do that for housing - build so much of it that pretty much anyone can get a home. The issue is that, not that 3 companies hold a miniscule 0.64% of an area's housing.

Build houses. Flood the market with houses.

> Build houses

That would be great. So, ah, when are we getting started and when will they be done?

We've seen time and time again big infrastructure projects are hamstrung by red tape and NIMBYs, it's never going to happen.

Also, just the materials for a house in many parts of Canada are $500k now, so it's not like you can just magically build an affordable house.

As soon as we decide to start building houses. Probably by liberalising planning, but also by reducing the cost of the matereials. Housing poverty is a choice made by governments, mostly on behalf of everyday people who want their home to appreciate. But banning companies from owning houses isn't going to solve anything. It's a symptom, not a cause.

What are companies composed of? Extraterrestrials?

Companies are not people. Because these companies are buying residential property, actual people miss out.

Would you be OK with a private company owning so much drinking water you and your family miss out?

The world isn’t zero sum. We can in fact build more houses.

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