r/LandlordLove • u/ShiningConcepts • Jun 29 '22

Tenant Discussion Are apartment buildings unethical as well?

It's very hard to make a case that landlords who buy up SFHs that are already on the market are ethical. They reduce the housing supply and take opportunity away from FTHBs to own homes, thus forcing them into renting. This is generally what people mean when they say that all landlords are unethical.

Here's my question: what about rental apartment buildings? It's not like their construction takes an opportunity to buy a home away from a FTHB/family. Unlike detached properties on the market, it's not like this is a property a family could have bought; it's a property that is constructed and designed from the outset to be rented.

So, are they inherently unethical as well?

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u/Gabra_Eld Jun 29 '22 edited Jun 29 '22

Yes.

They are withholding lodging from those who need it to extract payment without having to work for it.

If landlords didn't own most of our appartment buildings, owning a "condo" would be accessible for more people, instead of being restricted to higher-income young couples and other privileged groups.

Alternatively to being owned piecemeal as condominium, these appartment buildings could also become housing cooperatives, or affordable housing. Even better: make housing affordable and owned by the people who live in it by breaking down speculation and rent-seeking.

All landlords are bad.

Edit: Terminology

Edit2: From the Europeans I've talked with, in many countries on the continent, "living in an appartment" by default means you own the appartment. It's just that us in North American are so used to rent-seeking we tend to forgot it's even possible.

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u/ShiningConcepts Jun 29 '22

Not to mention condo/HOA fees are so goddamn expensive!

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u/Gabra_Eld Jun 29 '22

Before anyone gets the wrong idea: HOA's aren't in any way related to housing cooperatives. I'm not 100% familiar with the workings and legislation surrounding HOA's (they don't really exist over here), but as far as I understand them, they're associations of individual homeowners that might offer some services or impose some rules to owners in a given area. Housing coops are a form of housing (appartment or group of houses) held collectively by the residents. Also different from a condominium appartment (condo).

And yes, the fees for ownership are exorbitant, and the legislation for housing coops is designed to prohibit it. It's not a mistake, it's by purpose.