Vacant Housing Debate

In today's market the only reason they would be empty is because they are charging exorbitant rent compared to surrounding houses.

Not an expert, but could this have to do with financing? I've read of property owners keeping high rents despite it leading to empty spaces because "lower rents -> lower property assessment value by banks -> worse financing terms". I'm sure someone here can correct me.

Empty housing is a myth? Please explain.

Tons of homes in the US are kept vacant, either because landlord( companie)s want higher rents that what's achievable by renters in the market, or because property is a reliable asset to hold that will increase value.

In addition to the other comments: high vacancy and landlords who'd rather hold out for prices to come back up. They should be taxed into oblivion.

The financial motivation is in keeping rents high. The units are empty because no more people want to pay as much as they are charging. Then it becomes a balancing act. An empty unit might cost you X, but to find a tenant for it might require you to lower rent by Y. If X * # of empty units is less than Y * # of occupied units, then it makes more sense to leave them empty.

Apparently a bunch are, otherwise vacancy taxes wouldn't be a thing

This is a conspiracy theory that financially illiterate people love to parrot. There is no benefit to keeping a property vacant on purpose. It incurs opportunity cost, which is the cost of rent. The only reasons a property may remain vacant is either due to regulations, incompetent management or maybe money laundering (an actual crime) in which case collecting rent would impose a burden on the money laundering operation. By no means is this common, it is an extreme exception and bringing it u

You may not believe it, but the situation is very well documented and certainly a thing that is removing housing stock from cities around the world.Housing has a value as an investment, and leaving the housing unoccupied reduces the cost to maintain the investment. Tenants have a lot of protections in many jurisdictions, and an owner is responsible for maintenance, depreciation and damages, while a tenant cannot be evicted by the landlord who wants to sell a unit without a substantial waitin

You want a number of empty units in your city so that if you want to move there is a place to move to. No empty units means someone does without. You don't want too many empty units of course. some is needed.this price fixing is partially about units not even for rent which is a different problem you don't want. (but you want some units not for rent while they remodel)