There’s a theory of housing that says the problem we’re facing is fundamentally not a lack of homes or restrictions on building and density. Instead, we face a scourge of investors who buy homes not to live in but to rent out, taking away options from aspiring home buyers and forcing them into renting. As one comment on our channel argued, “the investors are the prime cause of this housing crisis let's stop the gaslighting and verbal gymnastics”. What we really need, then, is to encourage homeownership and clamp down on investors who outbid first-time-homebuyers. “Take out the demand from investors and you have more than enough supply. Which drives costs down.”, according to another commenter on one of our videos. Well, clamping down on investors is exactly what Rotterdam in the Netherlands tried to do — here’s how it turned out.
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References:
First study on Rotterdam: https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/3913/1/Master%20Thesis%20final%20version%20Pieter%20Reitsma%2017-7-2022.pdf
Second study on Rotterdam: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4480261
News coverage: https://www.dutchnews.nl/2023/06/buy-to-let-ban-is-good-for-first-time-buyers-but-bad-for-tenants/
City of Rotterdam policy page: https://www.rotterdam.nl/opkoopbescherming