• corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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    5 days ago

    In a region near me the rental market is 99.3% full.

    Scumbag landlords charge $200 to view these horrid places no one will ever rent, and their job is showing people the place, one after another. It’s only a half-dozen a day, but that’s a good wage and there’s no end of hopefuls. Apparently, needing a landlord to come out to show you the place is a “call-out”, even if he’s just upstairs.

    Of course that’s the “frbo” market; the rental companies can’t get away with that yet. They wish, though.

    • untorquer@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Well if you have 5 vacant units artificial scarcity is pretty easy to achieve by only putting one to market at a time.

      • Milk_Sheikh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 days ago

        Ding ding ding

        The same is done with commercial property too. Holding out (or more correctly, withholding a property entirely) vacant for X months is more profitable overall as it keeps the supply low for office/light industrial space, driving the same demand to fewer units until ✨ a newly renovated unit ✨ is available on the market.

        Until X months inoccupancy exceeds the profit of Y units generating Z extracted profit each, they come out ahead. And not even ‘we covered the mortgage and local tax’ ahead of break even, but the potential earnings if all were listed and rented.

        They literally make more money keeping housing vacant. And that needs to change.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      In a region near me the rental market is 99.3% full.

      I hear that from every landlord in every market, whether the economy is booming or shrinking and people are coming or going.

      I have never been quoted an occupancy rate less than 90%. I’ve been in buildings under construction and heard “Yes, we’ve already leased most of our units! You’re getting the last ones! So lucky!”

    • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Wait so the people who refuse to go with those big companies (aren’t there principled folks like that, maybe they have a name I’m forgetting) have to deal with that instead?

      It was like people who have to pay some fee I thought… searches oh it’s the no broker fee people. So do no broker fee ppl often pay viewing fees? And viewing fees are legal?