• seeigel@feddit.org
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    3 hours ago

    The main bottleneck for the housing market is land in areas where people want to live. People have to pay whatever they can to live close to their work. If demand is so big, of course only housing with the highest margins is developed, which is the luxery market.

    The speculative capital is flowing because the high demand keeps prices stable. If there would be a surplus to the point that the speculative capital doesn’t find a buyer when selling, prices would be much lower. The backing for the high prices are the real tenants though who want to live where they work.

    Appliances don’t need the speculative capital to become expensive. It is enough if there is less competition. Then customers can’t ‘move’ to other products and have to pay whatever is demanded.

    If the requirements stay limited to an extended warranty then things can remain competitive but I doubt that the regulations will end there. This should take cheap Chinese brands off the market that don’t have a support network in Europe. That’s good for nature, but it removes the cheap options off the market which will allow the market to rise the prices for the cheapest durable goods.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      31 minutes ago

      If demand is so big, of course only housing with the highest margins is developed, which is the luxery market.

      BS. There’s no market for overpriced accommodation which developers finally understood so they’re dialling it down. Took them long enough.

      If there would be a surplus to the point that the speculative capital doesn’t find a buyer when selling, prices would be much lower.

      It’s not about not finding a buyer. It’s about finding a buyer that meets their ROI demands, otherwise they’re happy to just let properties sit idle. That’s the “speculation” part.

      Again, the solution is regulation in the form of taxing vacant property. Can’t find a tenant, you say? City will be happy to provide you with one, straight off the top of the waiting list for social housing. Not the price range you want to rent for? Well, then you can pay taxes until you think otherwise.

      In the end, money is power. If you don’t want all the power to end up with whoever happens to have money you gotta stomp people with money at some point or the other. When they whine, tell them they should become better business people, not invest in such stupid schemes as trying to turn a working class neighbourhood into accommodation for billionaires.

      This should take cheap Chinese brands off the market that don’t have a support network in Europe.

      Turkish, more like, China isn’t really in the market here and Beko rules the low end. Still, two years warranty instead of the one year that’s the legal minimum.

      And honestly, 120 Euro fridges turning into 150 Euros fridges would be a good thing. Building things in a solid way is a different thing than blinging it out: Don’t push designers to get rid of the fourth bolt for the attachment plate, don’t save fifty cents by buying cheap lubricant, penny pinching is a disease. May increase GDP in the broken window way but who the hell wants that.