FT commenters absolutely on fire today 🔥🔥

Mar 25, 2024 · 9:14 AM UTC

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From @DelphineStrauss story on @resfoundation report that British housing is the worst value for money in the developed world ft.com/content/bef934b4-7474…

UK found to offer worst-value housing of advanced economies

Think-tank says British pay more and get less than people in other economies with similar incomes

ft.com
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This is also an important point: Blaming second homes is a misdiagnosis and distracts from the real causes of the problem. Can this be an issue at the margins in a very small number of specific localities? Yes. Is it a significant factor overall? No.
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Similar to the British obsession with blaming landlords for the housing crisis. There was outrage last week that “1 in 21 UK adults is a landlord! More landlords than teachers!” Share of adults who are landlords: • UK 4.6% • US 7% • Austria 10% • Germany 12% • France 13%
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It’s almost as though the number of people in a country who are landlords is: a) A function of the prevalence of renting b) Unrelated to housing crisis
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Replying to @jburnmurdoch
It’s amusing but also wrong. It’s not nimbyism - although that is an annoying side effect - but financialisation caused by allowing banks to print money. Our decision to run a trade deficit & ha ha, help consumers, made us reliant on debt & FDI instead of wages.
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It’s not wrong, but you’re right that there are other factors involved. And NIMBYism is also enabled by our planning regulations and appeals structures. I suspect many other countries would have bigger problems with NIMBYism if they enabled NIMBYism to the extent the UK does.
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more replies
Replying to @jburnmurdoch
Other comments are all blaming developer profits though, in a way they would never do with supermarkets etc.
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Replying to @jburnmurdoch
The Tories are left wing.
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Replying to @jburnmurdoch
Not a single item on that list is due to NIMBYism. Not one.
Replying to @jburnmurdoch
Mercantilist tripe…. Not least who says ‘Condominium’ in the UK….
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