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DeafBlindAndDumb's avatar

I don't know about the UK but in the US there have just been "revelations"? (not sure if true), that Landlord software company Realpage might be inflating rents by creating a pricing cartel between landlords:

https://www.propublica.org/article/yieldstar-rent-increase-realpage-rent

But yes, to your point this does point towards "fuck landlords", but probably there are some inbetween steps before full rent-controls. NYC is looking at banning landlords from seeing tenant's criminal convictions, California cities like SF, LA and SD are all extending COVID eviction moritoriums (forms of rent control).

The only question about your thesis which I agree with, is that a lot of the political class in places like San Francisco have a lot of their money in property. I would imagine London/UK would be similar. I guess if the Pelosis get pushed out of power by a more populist political part of the Democratic party maybe rent controls are in play?

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Russell Clark's avatar

Its an interesting link. The FTC has been looking at tech getting around anti-cartel laws. This would suggest apartment pricing may be an area of future investigation

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DeafBlindAndDumb's avatar

Another example in the states that is getting a lot of local communities angry is out-of-state landlords enabled by tech platforms coming in and buying up real-estate they never actually see. It is hard to imagine how someone in California can reasonably own and maintain rental properties in Alabama without going there:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/everyones-a-landlordsmall-time-investors-snap-up-out-of-state-properties-11661705278

But politically it does become a Fuck Landlords from out-of-state profiting on us point:

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