Taxing Non-Primary Properties

Gradually increase tax on rental income until its undesirable to own property you don't live in.

The tax could be an "empty house" tax, so there would be an incentive to get a tenant.Alternatively, the tax could be targeted at negating profit from value increase, so that you pay higher tax on profit from sale of property (possibly with a deduction you can apply when buying another one within some reasonable timeframe, so that normal homeowners aren't affected).

Taxing property, rather than income, can have this effect.

There are policies that allow for taxation while still not evicting people from their homes. For example, some states let property taxes accrue as a lien against the property that needs to be paid when the property changes ownership. This keeps people in their homes without locking in generations of the same family without compensating the public for the use of that public resource (and yes, land is a public resource of the state, regardless of some piece of paper that grants ownership to some r

I am a total newbie in economics. Stupid question: But what would hinder to put a very high tax for any habitable property if not the primary owner living in it as their primary home?Of course people can have secondary homes, maybe to a lower tax and rented appartment would benefit from a reduction if rental price moderate.Wouldn’t this just solve any speculation and make investments from « unequal« parties uninteresting?

The tax wouldn't affect all properties equally. It would punish undeveloped / under-developed land much more. Those owners could try to pass it on to the renter, if there is one, but the renter can move to better developed land that would be able to provide lower rents. The theory is that this would encourage the owner to develop the land into more units or sell it to someone else who will be under the same pressure.

I think a good (or at least simple) solution for this problem is to increase taxes on non-primary residences, as a simple case the tax rate could be:20% + 10%/extra houseSo if you own 9 houses you're paying 100% in taxes, making it untenable to be a large-scale landlord. This should cause a bunch of housing to go on the market with people wanting to avoid that tax risk, also driving housing costs down

Taxation can alleviate that. Provide tax relief to owner-occupants with children. Tax the shit out of non-occupant owners.

That's why those landlords need to be taxed more : so they lose a great deal of money if they don't rent.(if they sell up because they can't stomach the taxes, reducing home prices that is also a positive outcome)

There are ways around this. For example set a property tax from second home on. Do not tax the primary residence. Or set income brackets. If poorer people live in their own homes they don't pay property tax.