• Grayox@lemmy.mlOP
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      2 years ago

      Right?! Love how the article frames it as a bad thing because it doesn’t make sense from a capitalist standpoint.

      • anewbeginning@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        It certainly isn’t capitalist to have such an insane gap between offer and supply. If lack of offer is a problem, the issues with such enormous oversupply are even greater. Just wasteful. Damaging to the environment. And introduces a lot of economic woes.

        • zephyreks@lemmy.ca
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          2 years ago

          Ah yes, because housing as a right rather than an investment is a bad thing.

        • bouh@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Just no. It’s something libs seemingly can’t understand : you need surplus to face problems and adapt to a changing situation or a crisis without people dying. Problem is that libs care more about money than people, so they seek an equilibrium where supply is right below demand so the capitalists can exploit the people.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          2 years ago

          It certainly isn’t capitalist to have such an insane gap between offer and supply

          Sure it is! Capitalists just do it in the opposite direction; keep supply low so prices stay high.

          • camelCaseGuy@lemmy.world
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            2 years ago

            No, that’s an effect of collusion and cartelization of the economy. It’s because you have very few actors supplying the product and the barriers of creating a similar product are too high, so new competitors cannot access the market. Then the current suppliers can sit on the product and wait for it to be at the right price, as long as it doesn’t go to waste.

            As you can see, all of this screens about real estate:

            • Cartelization/collusion: The aren’t that many companies that have properties on sale
            • High cost to enter: Building is pricey, and it depends on the location of the property more than anything. So a building in one neighborhood is not a direct replacement of a building in another neighborhood.
            • Real estate does not go to waste. Unless bad luck or poor choices, your building should work fine for a couple of generations. And worst case scenario, the land already has a price.

            This is the time when governments should intervene and come up with a proposal to solve the cartelization.

              • camelCaseGuy@lemmy.world
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                2 years ago

                Yes and no. Capitalism without regulations may bring this kind of issues. But capitalism with regulations shouldn’t. The issue is that the required regulations are not being applied or do not exist.

                We should not blame or put the weight of the issue in capitalism, when we clearly know we don’t live in a perfect capitalistic world, and very few markets are like that. The issue is with politicians.

                • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                  2 years ago

                  Capitalism destroys its own regulations because politicians are for sale! You’re acting like politics and markets are different, but they’re interconnected at their very core.

                  • camelCaseGuy@lemmy.world
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                    2 years ago

                    Don’t blame capitalism for something that’s at the core of any political system: Greed destroys it. Greed and humans are intertwined. It’s not capitalism’s fault. The same happened across history even when and where capitalism didn’t exist: the Egyptian empire, the Roman Empire, the Soviet block and even in China now. Greedy people that can be bought will exist everywhere. The wish for power is not inherent of capitalism, is inherent of human nature. Failing to see that will lead to the same issue over and over again, in democratic or autocratic regimes.

      • LoamImprovement@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        It is a bad thing! How are investors holding on to dozens of empty units at ridiculous prices supposed to get a return on investment if the market’s oversaturated with living spaces?

        Looks like we’re gonna have to start tearing them down to reduce supply.

    • severien@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      It’s a problem for people who indebted themselves to buy those homes with a valuation based on scarcity. Also a problem for the real estate Chinese companies, sector which represents a quarter of Chinese economy.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        2 years ago

        Sounds to me like China is trying to solve both of those problems by lowering property scarcity - if this stays controlled it will make properties cheaper so people don’t need to acquire as much debt and it will shrink the real estate sector. Since this housing is built through centralized control and not a market, it should be totally under control.

        Obviously something unexpected could happen that blindsides the Party, but it looks like politics is in command and everything is proceeding as expected.

        • 30mag@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          Obviously something unexpected could happen that blindsides the Party, but it looks like politics is in command and everything is proceeding as expected.

          I take it you didn’t read the article.

          A former Chinese government official said the country’s entire population of 1.4 billion wouldn’t be enough to fill all of its empty houses, Reuters reported, citing a video from the state news agency China News Service. China’s real-estate struggles rose to prominence in 2021, when industry giant Evergrande became the most indebted company in the world and defaulted. At the time, there were at least 65 million vacant properties in the country, which would have been enough to house the entire population of France, Insider previously reported.

          To me, this seems wasteful. I’m not very familiar with the Chinese real estate market however.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            2 years ago

            There should always be a reserve supply of vacant properties to give people freedom of movement between regions and cities.