To think rich people shouldn’t be allowed to buy multiple houses when others can’t afford one?

[YourTealBalonz]

I know people say “it’s their money” but I genuinely think the housing crisis is made worse by second-home buyers and landlords snapping up properties just to sit on them. It drives up prices and freezes people out of the market. I’m glad council tax rules are starting to push back on this. AIBU to think second home ownership should be discouraged more openly?

We don't have a housing crisis - we have an overpopulation crisis.

Ridiculous take. Not everyone wants to own or can afford to. We need rental properties

Voters who own their own home are quite sensitive to the value of their main asset going down, though. You might be yourself, if you are a homeowner with a mortgage and wouldn't like to be in negative equity. It's a very delicate problem to solve.

But then there would be no homes for rent? I understand your point of view though. I live in a borough where many houses are empty most of the time. I would restrict purchases by non residents.

what's with all these commie takes lately on mumsnet ?

I don’t think many people are buying additional properties ‘just to sit on them’.

i think a very disproportionate amount of housing has become BTL.

Holiday homes are I suppose a particular problem to certain areas, and I can see why that creates problems locally.

No, we don’t have a right to police how people spend their own money. Though more should be done to prevent villages etc being overwhelmed with second homes, preventing locals etc from being able to live in their home areas.

I do find it odd that someone rich enough would be able to buy eg

every house in a village.

We have horses and would love our own field but there is a land banker near us who buys absolutely everything that comes and leaves it empty waiting for planning permission.

But we live in a capitalist society, I'm not sure about controlling what people are allowed to spend their money on. It probably won't end well.

It’s not a “commie take” to question whether unlimited second-home ownership is good policy in the middle of a housing shortage. Plenty of market economies regulate housing more tightly than we do.

I'd rather they are allowed to buy what they want but subject to additional taxation for owning more than one home.

If all these houses are available to buy, then there can't be a housing shortage.

Try telling us your jealous of people with more money than you without telling us.

Get a better job OP or start a niche business which can you make you rich. Then see if you like people telling you how to spend your money.

If I win the lottery OP I plan to have lots of houses and cars and holidays.😂

Envy won’t get you a house OP

I go into a shop and buy a bar of chocolate, you also go into the same shop but can’t afford a bar of chocolate, I then decide to get another because I can afford to…. If I decided to not buy the second bar how does that help you? You still can’t afford one bar.

I think the solution is to heavily tax non residential second homes and holiday lets. Firstly make it compulsory to apply for change of use for second homes and holiday lets and charge them a higher rate council tax. If a property is being used as a residential let then no change of use and no additional tax.

I don't think the types of houses that rich people buy as second homes would be affordable to the people that need them if we banned the rich from buying them. What we need to do is tax them more (but still fairly).

The issue we have and I don't believe it to be fixable for many reasons, is that the gap between wages and house prices has become a chasm in some areas since the 80's/90's and I think the knock effect of that has lead to a lot of the problems we have as a society and as an economy.

If there is a housing shortage as you state in later posts, it's a shortage of the right kind of houses for the low-average earners.

It’s not just villages

Well... Yes, there's a problem with the housing market when even two people on a good income can't afford somewhere decent. Yes the gov't has made it worse through a range of initiatives, starting with RTB and carrying on through the present day. Yes, greater regulation (second homes, overseas buyers...) would help. I'm not sure you can blame the individuals acting in their best interests within the system.

Really?
Many things "shouldn't" happen.

There will always be people who can’t or don’t want to buy. Where would they live if there were no landlords? My son wants to go to uni in 2027 and then the job he is training for at uni will probably take him all over the country and I don’t know where he will end up. He will need to be able to rent for several years whilst moving around although he won’t actually need or want a whole house. He will want a room in halls of residence or a shared house.

So I don’t think it’s a simple as not allowing second homes.

What is happening is that the rules are now so rubbish for landlords that they are selling up and as a result big companies are buying the houses. So rather than a landlord who has one rental house they are keen to look after there will be lots and lots of houses within a company. No one will be rushing to carry out the repairs and the rent will go up every year regardless of the tenants circumstances. I think it is a very scary time for renters.

My son will have to rent regardless but I am expecting his rent to go up and up due to landlords being forced into selling up so there being less rental houses.

I do get what you mean and I don't personally object to people owning more than one property, but I would like to see some more rules around this to make it fairer - I haven't thought it through in great detail, but broadly:

• limit the number of properties one can own (2 perhaps, one to live and one investment, or maybe capped at 3)
• and/or additional taxation that leaves it worthwhile, but not so lucrative that people want to buy hoardes of property and certainly in the holiday lets market

Approximately 90% of the UK population don't own more than one home...of the 10% that do, the majority are buy to lets. Given the way this Govt are going, more and more landlords are selling up, leaving fewer rental properties available.

The issue isn't second home owners....it's a lack of affordable housing being built, successive governmental failures to incentivise affordable house building, a sclerotic planning system, land banking, a finite amount of land being available, along with huge annual increases in the population for about the past 20 years..etc etc

I don’t think housing is comparable to chocolate. Chocolate isn’t a finite, essential resource tied to where you live, work, raise children or access healthcare. Housing is.

When people buy additional homes, it reduces supply in a local market and pushes prices and rents up for everyone else. That dynamic doesn’t exist with mass-produced consumer goods like chocolate. My point isn’t about individual morality, it’s about how incentives and scarcity operate differently in essential markets like housing.

Yes I agree with you. Financial Levy's should be added to not make it worth it.

House prices are up and down, even when they are down if you can’t afford one why can’t those than can afford to have two?