What we need is a mandated and enforced vacancy tax nationwide. Make it high enough to fix the housing crisis.
*Edited to add: according to the Wikipedia article I linked, Canada and the USA have cities that have implemented vacancy taxes. We need to do like France and Ireland and make it nationwide.
Exactly this. Any sort of “is the tenant not being overcharged” check would be extra complexity that’s not strictly necessary anyway. Once more properties become available on the market (because their owners want to pay less property tax), rents naturally start going down. Just need the vacancy tax to be high enough. If it’s a tiny tax, it doesn’t make a change.
What we need is a mandated and enforced vacancy tax nationwide. Make it high enough to fix the housing crisis.
*Edited to add: according to the Wikipedia article I linked, Canada and the USA have cities that have implemented vacancy taxes. We need to do like France and Ireland and make it nationwide.
Exactly this. Any sort of “is the tenant not being overcharged” check would be extra complexity that’s not strictly necessary anyway. Once more properties become available on the market (because their owners want to pay less property tax), rents naturally start going down. Just need the vacancy tax to be high enough. If it’s a tiny tax, it doesn’t make a change.