[creativeone]

If by rent-seeking, you mean: using resources to obtain an economic gain from others without reciprocating any benefits back to society through wealth creation.

Then real estate is not "rent-seeking".

Real estate owners take the burden of home ownership off the shoulders of renters. Renteres choose to rent because they have an economic incentive to do so. Instead of a buying a home cash, or putting down a deposit, a renter can use that money for investing in other activities, spending on themselves or their family, or save. Of course, there are many renters who cannot afford a down payment at all. For them, the landlord is playing an even more important role by letting them rent in areas where purchasing would be impossible.

I do agree that most tax incentives for investing should be abolished. But I disagree that real estate is less productive than other types of investing.

[vitriol83]

In general you're right it's unfair to say that real estate investment is always unproductive and rent-seeking. However for major cities like London with tight supply, the flows of real estate investment that followed QE and zero interest rates haven't been matched by appropriate levels of home building. As a result affordability and ownership levels have reached historic lows, and many more people are becoming 'unwilling' renters, only able to service the financing costs of real estate investors. At this stage it becomes rent-seeking and unproductive, in my view, and there ought to be appropriate policy responses from government.