[derektank]

It's not the fault of private capital firms that local governments have essentially outlawed building new homes in many areas. The solution should be focused on restricting the ability of localities to do this, not restricting the ability of companies to buy real estate.

[xphos]

Yeah I agree with this here. Its simply to hard to build housing and the number permits and zoning restrictions have lead to localized housing shortages where people want to live. Its simply a difficult poltical issue to solve because most of the time zoning is handled at the local level and old people who have houses attend town hall meetings where zoning is discussed (if seldomly ever). Homeowners who have treated housing as a speculative centeralized asset have little to gain in allowing the market fixing itself.

[Qwertious]

It kind of is, though. The political economy is a thing, lots of companies lobby for favourable legislation.

[Avicebron]

> It's not the fault of private capital firms

Which doesn't really matter because they don't need to be "protected" in any capacity. Removing their ability to purchase those homes, and letting it get sorted between the people who are "outlawing building homes" and those who want to move there makes more sense.

[WalterBright]

Deciding who gets to buy what is known as central economic planning. It doesn't have a good track record.

In this case, by restricting who can buy, you're reducing the demand for housing. Less demand means lower prices. Lower prices mean fewer homes will be built, meaning less supply.

A better scheme would be to lower the costs of home construction by reducing regulations and taxes on them.