I’ve more or less given up the idea of owning something on my own in any of the cities in Flanders. Unless the housing market really crashes one day, which I think isn’t that likely. News like this doesn’t really do that much to give me hope: what do I care that prices stabilize or stop growing if it’s out of my reach anyway?
I think the solution is taxing second homes while controlling rent prices (so that it’s not renters who have to pay that cost) and also make it prohibitively expensive to own more than two places. Huisjesmelkers need to go out of business really fast.
That would be awesome, but I don’t see that happening in our country at all.
Yes, the landlords lobby is too strong
Definitely not with MR in government. They’re also the single reason why the woonbonus is still a thing for second homes. Rather than discouraging it, all of us pay taxes so we can hand it to people who are rich enough to buy a second house in the first place for snatching that house away from us and driving up the prices.
That party is the most populist, anti-science and destructive to the social and financial wellbeing of this country I’ve seen. And that says a lot if you take a look at some other parties.
While it would be good. That will never work. It’d be better to create fines if you have property for rent that isn’t rented out. That will decrease speculation in property and drive down both rental and property costs.
It’s so insane that renting is more expensive than paying off a mortgage so quickly. I pay less than half what it costs some neighbours down the street to rent a house which is virtually identical to mine, except I have a garage and they don’t.