Thread by @mtnbvan

#vanre #tore #cdnre #usre #EU #REITS #ItsSpeculationStupid #financialization #commodification #cdnpoli #uspoli

https://twitter.com/EastVanBuilder/status/1541083576380207104

"Institutional investors...have squeezed residential markets in many parts of the world, can be expected to pick up a purchasing pace that has turned them into the world’s biggest private landlords and transformed rental housing into a go-to global asset class."

“Institutional ownership threatens to accelerate the trends unleashed by the financialization of housing”

"...automated digital platforms have made it easier and cheaper to track, price, acquire and manage large swaths of homes in multiple communities."

" As they snap up properties, these bulk-buying acquisitors have helped drive up sales prices and rental costs, skewed development and, in some cases, exacerbated housing insecurity."

"Defending a federal budget measure that calls for a two-year ban on home purchases by foreigners, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared that houses “aren’t supposed to be assets for wealthy investors. They are supposed to be homes where families can raise their kids...”

"It’s a fine sentiment. But the fact is that investors will keep knocking on Canadian doors. Foreign capital can easily team up with Canadian partners, and domestic investors routinely outbid house-hunting families."

"The financial heavyweights’ move into housing has been aided and abetted by governments through financial deregulation, tax breaks, subsidies for home owners, historically low borrowing costs and relief for renters, which translates into stable income for investors."

"...Years of loose monetary policy “contributed to making government bonds less and less attractive and housing finance more and more accessible, shifting investments into the real estate markets and creating house price bubbles, which increased housing unaffordability."

“On one hand, we say housing is a human right. But we see more & more resources...supporting home ownership and private rental” -Yushu Zhu, an assistant [prof] of urban studies & public policy at [SFU]...researched housing inequality &..sector into... “an investment opportunity”

"The crisis has triggered a growing public backlash to the power of the investors, as angry residents demand government action ranging from rent controls and stiffer sanctions to more drastic intervention..."

"In Berlin, institutional investors have gobbled up €40-billion (about C$54.8B) worth of rental homes, double the combined value of what they own in London and Amsterdam, their next largest European markets."

" A majority of Berliners voted in a referendum last September to expropriate holdings of landlords with 3,000 or more apartments. A commission is currently investigating whether such a law would be constitutional."

"In the Netherlands, the [Govt] has given municipal authorities the right to block companies from buying homes in lower-income districts and turning them into rentals...after more than one-third of the properties sold in the country’s four largest cities...[owned by] investors."

"The largest and most experienced institutional player in the residential game is Blackstone Group...with US$550-billion...of property...office buildings, hotels, housing...retail complexes to industrial space, warehouses, data centres & research facilities."

"Blackstone last month opened its first real estate office in Toronto to expand its already substantial presence in [Canada], where it holds $14B worth of property, mainly in the logistics sector, but also commercial and residential buildings in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver."

"Institutional investors’ “domination of some local housing markets gives them the power to increase rents and dictate lease terms,” Suzanne Lanyi Charles, an associate professor of urban planning at Cornell University...”

"[Charles] noted that “where their rentals are highly concentrated, mega-landlords have outsized power over the lives of residents. They can undermine renters’ access to those neighbourhoods as well as housing affordability and stability.

Charles: "The biggest American operator, Invitation Homes Inc., a publicly traded company worth about US$23B created by Blackstone, jacked up rents last year by 18% for new leases, 8% for renewals and almost 30% in such booming U.S. markets as Las Vegas"

"The single-family rental game has since grown so profitable that developers want to play, too. Imagine a...family trying to compete with the likes of Core Development Group, a Toronto-based condo builder...[will] spend as much as $1B acquiring detached homes ...mid-sized cities"

"None of these investments will do anything to address the acute lack of affordable housing...neither will some of the enacted or proposed restrictions...including foreign ownership bans, steeper property taxes, rent caps, limits on evictions or [beneficial ownership]"

One way to [combat financialization of housing] would be for governments to put non-profit housing providers on a stronger competitive footing with private developers. It would also be “a more strategic, long-term way to deter this financialization,” - Zhu

"In Europe, non-profit housing accounts for as much as 20% of the supply in certain markets, and in some cases even more...

...In Canada, social housing accounts for just 10% to 15% of the entire rental market, Ms. Zhu says.

“ [Cdn] Social housing providers are totally siloed. They cannot compete with the private market developers and they receive only very limited support from government.”