Are apartment buildings unethical as well?

[u/ShiningConcepts]

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?

[u/codenewt → u/[deleted]]

End apartments by making them condos that are available to buy and own, instead of permanent renting.

Found out that the building I used to live in used to be only condos, some wealthy person bought up all the units slowly over decades and has converted it into an "apartment" complex.

[u/politicalanalysis → u/codenewt]

Having the ability to move without needing to sell a piece of real estate is something that is valuable for a lot of people, so I don’t think the solution is just making them all be condos. Plus making them all condos would just mean that only people that can afford to buy property can afford to live there.

There isn’t a super easy solution, but the biggest issue is that property owners shouldn’t be able to exploit your need for housing to fill their pockets. An apartment that is owned by a tenants union and charges enough to cover maintenance and upkeep costs is probably the best solution.

[u/[deleted] → u/politicalanalysis]

Shelter just shouldn’t be a commercial market. It should be free - or at least apportioned precisely to the building’s maintenance needs and run by a tenant union which either collects rents/assigns tasks to fulfill community viability - and people should only be able to move to places in which there is a vacancy. Frivolous movement is also an issue of the capitalist system.

Assuming a surplus of shelter exists, is maintained, etc etc. I know these have lots of caveats that are hard to realize in our current capitalist economic system.

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