ID: A Sophie Labelle 4 panel comic featuring Stephie in different poses, saying:

Landlords do not provide housing.

They buy and Hold more space than they need for themselves.

Then, they create a false scarcity and profit off of it.

What they’re doing is literally the opposite of providing housing.

  • @[email protected]English
    -13•6 hours ago

    If the landlords do not provide a service, you’re welcome to go to the bank to approve your loan, buy or build a house, maintain it, pay back the loan and deal with delinquent renters and sell it when it’s time for you to move out. None of which concerns you as a renter.

    It is a massive PITA and it’s a so-so store of value at best. That there are assholes who charge you through the nose for the rent doesn’t mean it’s a landlord problem. It’s an asshole problem.

    • RayquetzalcoatlEnglish
      8•4 hours ago

      My landlady just put my rent up fifty quid. She owns (and rents out) 23 other properties. She’s raking in everyone else’s money. Fuck landlords.

    • @Olgratin_MagmatoeEnglish
      5•4 hours ago

      Nobody tell this dude about co-ops, market rate housing, non profits, etc.

    • @[email protected]English
      8•5 hours ago

      it’s a so-so store of value at best.

      For that to be true you need to be living in a place where price/rent has not doubled or even quadrupled in the past 10 years.

    • @BigBenisEnglish
      4•4 hours ago

      Bull-fucking-shit.

      20 years ago, houses in my neighborhood were selling for around $50k. Those same houses today hold a current market value of over $800k.

      For comparison, the value of the USD has lost roughly 40% in value over the last 20 years, meaning if the houses in my neighborhood were only a “so-so store of value” (tracking inflation) they would be worth roughly $80k today, 10x less than the current market value.

      For another comparison, if you put $50k into an index fund that tracked the S&P500 20 years ago, it would be worth roughly $350k today. That’s not even half of the return houses in my neighborhood are getting over the same time period.

      Sure it costs a lot of money to maintain a house and pay taxes and insurance over that 20 years and that’s going to eat into those returns. But I can guarantee you I’m paying more than that to rent a similarly-sized property, which you would be doing anyway if you didn’t have the capital to own a home.

    • @markstosEnglish
      3•5 hours ago

      I live a college town. Most students don’t want to buy a house to live in for four years and many don’t want to live in dorms either.