JohnSmithterms
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Jul 14, 2025 5:29 PM
JohnSmithterms
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RoboUnicornFishBalls
Should be more worried about the rug underneath.
Banks are now buying up property to rent for profit.
https://www.leaseholdknowledge.com/lloyds-bank-becomes-the-latest-for-profit-registered-social-landlord/
The old company name before becoming lloyds living:
HogulusPrime
"Welcome to the party." sincerely, the US real-estate market.
CrimsonPermanentAssurance
In the US, there are several states with incredibly lax laws designed specifically to allow people to secretly own assets
Ludus
The US: "First time?"
AnAverageBoxEnthusiast
YUP that was what brexit was all about
scummos
I don't know what this is trying to tell me. England+Wales has tens of millions of properties. This is talking about 92.000 of them, so the whole chart deals with significantly less than 1% of properties. So what's the message here?
Carl99
Not to mention in the k the cost to build is very close to the cost to buy when i checked a couple of years ago. High house prices in the UK have nothing to do with companies buying property, but just the fact housing is expensive.
ouhhmytralalamydingdingdong
Buying a house in the UK is a scam
djangojazz
The next war is going to not be across countries borders. But corporations that cross borders to buy land and give nothing in return except bribes to governments.
MostLikelyNotWearingPants
Meh, that’s nothing. Our entire US government is owned by corporations/billionaires. Just buy some meme coin or issue the Pres. a resort build permit in your country and you’re in.
18booma
In the UK even the water is privatized. Half of the worst economic shit you see in America was invented by Margaret Thatcher. That monster truly fucked up Britain, and indirectly, the world.
dynamojoe
Foreclose on the properties owned by those 1800 companies and they'll get that shit corrected really quick.
Mohareb
Exactly. If the paper work isn't in order it's not yours. They're fully aware of what and why they do it so they will never fail it afterwards if they lose these purchases
rossimus
Why would the government pick a fight with their personal financiers and yacht buddies?
deletable
Private citizens could file claims for mis-listed properties?
rossimus
Who hears and enforces that?
Toqom
Find the property and squat, 40% of homes are intentionally vacant. There are more homes vacant then homeless people
MaleProstateMilker88
This is always what every conservative rightwing govenrment tries to do and yet people keep voting them. Can't vote for the Left, it always has to be some corpo-loving immigrant-hating political party, and then wonder why everything goes down the drain.
JohnSmithterms
Yup. I'm voting green for the wealth tax and to get rid of first past the post . But my bets are on reform gaining a shit load of mp's if labour leeps rolling out these tory policys.
arrowsmithrobert
I recon the 1,900 companies with no beneficial owner should simply be taken into government control and ownership and then sold for the benefit of the taxpayer. And the same for the 11,000 that did not submit their details.
BofusTeefus
Welcome to the US.
levelor
The US is like this.
EternalStudent07
Why is it allowed to have no obvious owner, being at least one currently breathing human being? This shouldn't be allowed in the age of electronic databases. If you never start forcing this, you'll never get there. Don't care about past mistakes/stupidity.
JustLoitering
The threshold for disclosure of beneficial ownership here is >25%. So if the company is owned in equal shares by 4 people or more, it will show up as not having a beneficial owner on this register. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-an-overseas-entity#what-a-beneficial-owner-is
18booma
The UK is built for the wealthy, much like the US is. Hopefully a strong left party can form around Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. There is an appetite for change, and they're not stuck in a two party system.
3Davideo
They might not have a two-party system quite like the US does but their electoral system is still Duverger's-positive ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law ), in that splitting support can risk helping their opponents compared to remaining consolidated.
Canada has that problem too: how many stories have you heard of NDP supporters having to vote for Liberals to keep a Conservative from winning?
We *all* need reforms here.
JohnSmithterms
Corbyn lost the last election he ran for prime minister due to a smear campaign as he was against israels policys and supported palestine. Turns out he was right huh. He also made mistakes politically. But the main reason was the billionaire press. The media eviscerated him, and the general british public is not that smart. I'd vote for him any day. Not convinced everyone else would.
18booma
Yeah, but there's been a huge change in the UK (and elsewhere). An estimated million people marched for Palestine on Armistice Day last year. If you can just get the young people of that crowd to go out and campaign, the billionaire media will be powerless to stop them.
JohnSmithterms
Yeah im old though ive seen morons elect morons since Thatcher. I do not have any hope it will change. But im not going to give up either.
iusedtodream
Land Back, baby
KillingTlme
I never understood why any country allows non-citizens to buy property.
gumol
Because I live here?
18booma
Non-citizens are fine. Non-residents buying residential property sucks, but that's capitalism. He who has money has ownership. The rest of us only have our labor to exchange for a pittance.
JohnSmithterms
The british gov love foreign coins. They have since the 80's. Its short term gain for long term loss.
ScootyPuffSr
"The UK is being purchased by corporations." Oh, that must be terrible, maybe the UK can ask some advice on how to handle that from the lands once owned by the British East India Company or the Hudson's Bay Company.
executivedisfunction
Last I looked, the largest % of foreign ownership of American land is by UK citizens. And has been for a long time. Suggesting a whole bunch of witty aphorisms relating to this meme would be appropriate.
JohnSmithterms
Whataboutism at its finest. Oh fuck ... the people who lived here 3 generations ago were assholes i guess i should just accept my fate today. You need to apologise to some trees for providing you with oxygen. Where do you live dumbass?
ScootyPuffSr
Today, Minneapolis. But 15 years ago, I lived in the literal afternoon shadow of a residential school in the Canadian arctic, where within living memory and under the authority of the Crown, they dragged kids the authorities had kidnapped from their families for hundreds of kilometers around and beat them until they stopped being not-white. You?
JohnSmithterms
Then i hope you shut the fuck up about any racial injustice or physical abuse or murder you might encounter or even suffer yourself in the future due to your proximity to those events and your life overlapped with those events. I hope you feel deep shame in yourself over the crimes that others commited. /s And im a brit now but lived in africa and grew up in asia. Travelled a lot.
invadeboiss
Yes, this is Capitalism functioning AS DESIGNED.
Capitalism is an untenable system that needs to be destroyed if humans are to move foward.
JohnSmithterms
I agree ... eventually, we need to kill capitalism. But we will need half a century of democratic socialism first before we get anywhere close to being able to do that.
invadeboiss
We're not going to get that out of a capitalist system.
JohnSmithterms
There is 0% chance of killing capitalism. Best thing we can do is unionise on masse country by country and unite politically behind more socialist leaning party's. We cannot even do that properly yet. Killing capitalism is a LONG way away.
invadeboiss
Right, you, and most, can imagine the end of the world before you can imagine the end of capitalism. I understand the brainwashing is strong.
You can't use the oppressor's tools to break your chains. If you believe you can, you're the perfect mark. Yes, it is in the future, but how far, who knows? But admitting defeat, your literal opening statement, won't get you anywhere.
It's a "LONG way away" because people WANT to believe it's a long way away.
JohnSmithterms
It's not that I cannot envision the end of capitalism. I know how people vote because I have been talking to people about politics since Thatcher oh enlightened one.
I know that trying to jump before you can walk will fail. The socialist party manifesto in the UK has policy which 98% will not vote for. When I look at the green party I see policy which shifts left of Labour/Tory but is also still reasonable because they are not trying to kill capitalism, they are trying to leash it 1/?
woodintunoit
Yep. Canada put a 20% tax beyond the second home in ownership in certain areas.People trying to hide this by using companies can face severe
IAmTheBadW01f
In my state that's accomplished with a high base rate and a substantial reduction for a primary residence
woodintunoit
penalties. It works. The USA currently has many artificially inflated rental markets in large part due to companies&Bezos buying up homes.
KillingTlme
Also due to collusion from using the same software to help them keep the market inflated.
woodintunoit
Oh yeah - this is the 'AI' theyve been dumping billions into, so of course the software is great at it.
RocketKokket
I thought that was just a Toronto municipality thing didn’t realize it was federal level
AlbrechtEh
The taxes / policies are municipal, not federal.
FarNorth60
Also in Canda you pay no income tax on the increase in value of your one home, but fuĺl income tax on any additional properties.
seventhsonandsomesuch
Which has an inverse effect of companies keeping vacant properties in dense areas to count losses against their inflated rentals.
JohnSmithterms
If I had genie powers I would add a 5% tax for all landlords with more than 2 properties which are properly defined as typical housing stock or "homes" and add 5% a year until the number of landlords has declined sufficiently ... gives them a few years to sell up. Homes should never be for profit. And I would definitely have all of those landlords step barefoot on lego every night for the rest of their lives. "WHERE DOES THIS FUCKING LEGO KEEP COMING FROM" - Landlords
a1b2c3Cat
Social housing usually are massive "companies" that own lots of houses, this idea will break that system.
JohnSmithterms
No. Not if its state owned. This prevents insane price rises we have seen in the last 60 years. You could buy a home on 1 years wages back then. Today its 6 to 14 times the mean annual wage ! And corporations are buying up housing stock for profit. Its fucking foul.
Chronomechanist
I appreciate you for both your legal, and your PG approach to solving the problem.
Unfortunately, my years of being a poor arse student in shitty rented accommodation has left me with a hatred for landlords that only copious amounts of fire and excessive gratuitous violence can resolve.
JohnSmithterms
I would be happy to call that, option 2 and option 3. I've owned property for 30 years and hated landlords for 40. If you live in the UK i hope you vote green. Its our best chance at solving inequality.
JohnSmithterms
I tried searching for info on that 20% policy you mentioned but did not find anything .... do you have a source?
AlbrechtEh
The policies are per municipality and have been implemented in larger cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa. Ottawa's is called the 'Vacant Unit Tax', and it's not quite what he described, but the intent is similar.
blindows1127001
Toronto's vacant home tax is here. Though not even close to 20% https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/property-taxes-utilities/vacant-home-tax/
JohnSmithterms
A 3% tax on vacant homes in a country with a housing crisis is an excellent start for sure. In the UK you pay between £900 and £10000 a year after a property has been vacant between 1 - 4+ years. Its basically your council tax bill with a 100% increase each year for 4 years. So nowhere near 3% a year for most properties.
blindows1127001
Yea it'll be interesting to see if it works, Toronto is becoming basically unlivable it's so expensive.
JohnSmithterms
I hate to be pessimistic and I do not know what the housing stock numbers are in Canada but I would guess that vacant homes are a small percentage of what is required to get rent and property prices down. I would bet that increases taxes on landlords with more than 2 properties would make a bigger difference in the long term. And having the gov own more property like what we had here in the UK in the 1970's. Socialism.
woodintunoit
Its *helped* but it doesnt cure the underlying issues and motivation for controlling property availability all by itself. Its a degree of relief. There is evidence it has worked where enacted. More importantly, it shows the world that we are wise to artificial market manipulation and that we can tax this abuse.