You’re paying them for having had at the right time the capital to get hold of a limited resource that’s required by people to live, which they now block you from getting or using unless you pay them.
You’re paying a ransom, not buying a service.
If there were lots of houses available to buy at prices which were affordable to all and some people were landlords letting those who chose not to buy (for example because they were only somewhere temporarily) then, yeah, landlords would be providing an actual service, but that’s not at all the system we have and plenty of people who want to buy in practice cannot, so have no other option in order to have a place to live than to pay the ransom to those who do have the capital to buy (or did, back when it was cheaper) and used it to capture that resource that’s required by others.
You’re paying them for having had at the right time the capital to get hold of a limited resource that’s required by people to live, which they now block you from getting or using unless you pay them.
You’re paying a ransom, not buying a service.
If there were lots of houses available to buy at prices which were affordable to all and some people were landlords letting those who chose not to buy (for example because they were only somewhere temporarily) then, yeah, landlords would be providing an actual service, but that’s not at all the system we have and plenty of people who want to buy in practice cannot, so have no other option in order to have a place to live than to pay the ransom to those who do have the capital to buy (or did, back when it was cheaper) and used it to capture that resource that’s required by others.
That’s why the supply has to increase.
Couldn’t agree more.
Personally I’m a big fan of Public Housing as a way to pump up supply.
Somebody showed me this some time ago:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mietshäuser_Syndikat
Somehow this needs to become more popular. It’s easier to build privately than to organize a majority.