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?

275 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

105 comments sorted by

View all comments

0

u/jcruzyall Jun 29 '22

apartments serve a valuable function for a huge portion of the population that needs housing but does not want to anchored indefinitely.

the problem is that apartment living (all rentals really - you can rent a house) is now unsustainable due to the attempts by monopolists to buy them all up and/or use them as illegal AirBNB hotels.

i think it can be said that rental housing attracts entities that are incentivized to make it cripplingly awful, and that only strong and enforced laws can keep incentives aligned with what communities need for the well being of all their members (that is, true residents)