I don't think private landlords are really that bad. Renting out your dead nan's house or buying a duplex to letting the other half is fine as long as you charge appropriate rent and treat your tenants well. In an ideal world, houses would not be investments but rather something that everyone can own and live in, but we're not going to get that by going cold turkey as some people are suggesting. Reform is slow and boring but usually works out better than trying to tear everything down at once.

The real problem is companies buying up an absurd number of units and hoarding the available housing stock while squeezing tenants and generally just being miserable landlords.

Imo if you own more than the house you personally reside in, you can go to hell.

establish 👏 tenant 👏 owned 👏 cooperatives 👏

IF yOu ArE ANtICAPiTaLIST Why dO yOU HavE A JOb? energy I'm getting from this post.

No, I don't think renting out your first home is a grave issue, but it's a snow flake in the avalanche for why housing is unaffordable. Housing is either a necessity that should be affordable, or an investment that grows and grows in value. Society has to pick one. And it would be obviously ruinuos for the status quo of housing to outpace inflation to continue.

There are situations where it does make sense to rent or put a property up for rent. For example, if you are relocating temporary for a job or education, it would make a lot of sense to get a short term lease, rather than buy or stay in a hotel (depending on price, of course). An individual who know that a property of theirs won't be used for some time can then lease it out to this person. It's a win-win, as tenants don't deal with the process of closing or the responsibility of ownership, and the landlord makes some extra cash on the underutilized property.

However, the problem really comes down to when it becomes a business. Companies buy up large quantities of land and property and rent them out, allowing them to shift the costs of mortgage and taxes to the tenant while reaping the benefits of increasing equity. Furthermore, the amount of property for sale decreases, artificially lowering supply for housing to own. This drives up costs. As the company buys up more and more property, they also get to jack up the prices because of their local monopoly. In the individual landlords case, this wouldn't happen because they have to compete with the rest of the diverse market. So overall, prices go up for housing everywhere.

I see a few paths to a solution.

1. Limit the number of properties a corporation/individual can lease and/or increase taxes exponentially. This prevents the ability to lease out tons of property, while still allowing businesses to own multiple properties as needed for actual work.
2. Remove restrictions on single family only housing and residential zoning. This is mainly a US issue, but it would allow for denser housing options, increasing supply in places where that is currently impossible. It would also create more opportunities for economic growth, as placing residencies in areas with businesses reduces demand on cars and makes it easier to network with people.

Robespierre: "You get the guillotine! You get the guillotine! You ALL get the guillotine!"

I think its a weird argument to say all landlords are evil because even if they were forced to sell their real estate properties, they would just put their wealth elsewhere. They would instead become shareholders or creditors.

The problem is more so in general with people that have a lot of wealth, regardless of how they choose to hold it.

And furthermore, the problem isn’t even with people that have a bit of wealth, it’s with billionaires. If we taxed those assholes properly then governments could just afford to build high rises which would drive real estate prices down.

i think the "who is getting the guillotine?" is malicious framing. i assume u just worded it that way because it sounds funny but it still has effect of making ppl more reluctant to voice criticism.

no landlords should be killed. their private property should be transfered to a public ownership model and portions of their financial wealth should potentially be seized. ideally all housing would be made public but as a transitionary step, at least private housing should be.

for your examples, since we currently dont have good options for simply making those houses into public property, with the peopl who previosly owned them getting dibs on living there, its fair for them to keep the houses as private property for a while, without living there. letting other people live there for the meantime is also a good idea. just let them live there for free, under the condition of keeping the house livable and paying for upcomming costs. maybe offer yourself as a hireable manager for the house, if you want to get moeny out of it. why should people have to pay you for using something you dont need, if thats not reducing the value?

and yes, i am aware that being ethical with ones private property is hard, because its discouraged by current policies and public mentalities, but that doesnt mean its something we shouldnt strive for, on an individual and grander social level.

How about buying a cheap house that needs a lot of work and renting out rooms to your friends so that all of you can have an affordable place to live?

Renting isnt the problem. If tou own two houses and an apartment and rent out them except the one youre living in that isnt really the problem. When a single person owns a whole city thats the problem. Most people rent out houses/apartments as a small passive income. If its your only form of income that means youre not really contributing to society. Youre getting money for an asset that already exists.