Brits buy homes, the Germans rent – which of us has got it right? Germany seems to offer cheaper rents and more choice than the UK. But is the grass really grüner?, by Joe Palmer (The Guardian)
... She has no doubts that Germany offers tenants a better deal than the UK: "There's more to rent here and it's all very transparent. You can check if your rent is fair using the Mietspiegel [rental index] on the Munich city website. If you are paying too much, the tenants' association will step in for you."
New Albany is a state of mind … but whose? Since 2004, we’ve been observing the contemporary scene in this slowly awakening old river town. If it’s true that a pre-digital stopped clock is right twice a day, when will New Albany learn to tell time?
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tenants rights? Huh?
This article covers much ground, and differences between Europe as a whole and the US must be factored into the equation, but one paragraph jumps out at me. Can New Albanians even begin to fathom life in a place where rental property ownership is fairly regulated, rather than slumlords cynically empowered?
From someone called DNAse in the comments:
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line is that inflating property values are a huge negative on the economy. Everyone needs to live somewhere and every business needs to occupy some space. A taxation system switched more to the consumption of location (land value) rather than labour and trade is economically sensible and rewards hard work rather than sitting on a plot and skimming off the premium with no contribution to real wealth generation.
In other words, the exact opposite of what the U.S. in general and Indiana more specifically does. We reward the state of being wealthy more than working.
Use your money to cordon off a portion of a city or county so that no one else can make use of it and get a tax break. Choose to work more and circulate your money throughout your community and have your taxes raised to make up for the resource mongers.
We've codified hoarding into a virtue.
rental property ownership is regulated in New Albany, by HUD. We have a high % of section 8 housing. So, those are the "quality" rentals. The bottom rung on the rental property market comes after that, the slumlord arena. It would cost a faction of what redevelopment throws around to empower the Building Commissioner et al to do the job and and get New Albany out of the slum business, and make no mistake, it is a business for many.
ReplyDelete