To think people who own multiple homes have helped drive house prices out of reach?

[OneRoofIsEnough]

I’m not saying they’re the only reason but I do think anyone who owns more than one residential property has played some part in pushing prices up over the last few decades.
When housing is treated as an investment vehicle rather than shelter, demand increases, supply tightens and first-time buyers lose out. Over time, that has made home ownership unaffordable for huge numbers of people.

AIBU to think this isn’t just “the market”, it’s a collective outcome created by individual choices?

It is stopping, AB as new PM, ME escalation, Japan "carry trade" etc. are all piling pressure on future mortgage costs, immigration drops will put pressure on BTL and the eventual recession will put a damper on all that lovely AirBnB that ruins residents peaceful enjoyment of their home.

It was a globally co-ordinated cheap debt experiment, designed to cover lack of wage rises and boost bank lending (and banker"s bonus pots) the public fell for it hook line and sinker - Why just have one mortgage when you can have three or four and rent out to students and immigrants! You are going to be a Big Player Mr and Mrs Blackpool bedsit "owner"!

I think a lot of the problems with housing and also amount of benefits being paid is due to relationships breaking down. I don’t think that’s a bad thing but it’s a price we pay.

I don't agree with people who have so many properties they can afford to leave one or more of them empty the majority of the time. While others struggle desperately to find affordable rentals. I think social housing should be massively increased.

That is a tiny minority of people and nothing to do with affordable rentals, most people will be facing double council tax on empty property now, and probably a new tax or two under AB as PM, they will be forced to sell or get them occupied.

Nobody should be allowed to own more than one house and that house should only be allowed to be as big as required, one bedroom per occupant.

Ok then that's good isn't it? I don't see how it wouldn't impact the rental market though.

Labour had THIRTEEN YEARS in which to repeal or amend that law, but they didn’t. Why was that, I wonder? Could it possibly be because they thought it’d lose them votes?

They wanted to blow the property bubble as hard as they could.

Because many second homes are around the coast, they are in rural areas, most immigrants/young people looking for work want a flat in the city, and certainly in London anyway there is an oversupply of basic shoe-box flats.

A very small number of people can actually fund (without mortgage debt) second or multiple homes and afford to pay the taxes to keep them empty, most people were just leveraging up on existing property/mortgage debt to attain a "lifestyle", unless they have paid a lot of the mortgage debt back their positions will unwind quite quickly if rates go up.

The basic causes of housing unaffordability were mass immigration and too much cheap mortgage debt for too long, blaming "second homes" is just a media distraction on behalf of the banks who have tried to pretend for years that high house prices are somehow "normal" (much harder to put that lie over now though)