I would hope that investors are in a better position to suggest how to increase housing affordability rather than how to hoard housing. To be seen to be providing valuable services or to be seen trying to "molopolize" housing services.QUOTE]
Hi Nullagine
Well, I try and do my bit.
As an investor, I have provided quality, affordable housing to seven families. I have leased four of my properties and referred three of my customers to the Office of Housing which has taken medium term leases and removed at least seven people from the 30,000 long waiting list for Public Housing in Victoria.
If I was not an investor, these people would still be waiting for the opportunity of a long term home.
This satisfies my financial need to pay my mortgages and my sense of social justice.
Regarding the issue of productivity - I consider the provision of housing to be of paramount importance. I have worked mind-bogglingly hard to earn the deposits and to pay the shortfall on these properties. The houses are the repository of that productivity. It's a little like putting time in a bottle, when you put your hard earned money into property.
The Lord shall return to you the years which the Locust have eaten (Joel 2:25). The years of work have been returned to me by the value of the properties. I drive past one of my houses occasionally, and I am overwhelmed that the five years that I ran the business and the people I employed and the people who were able to go to work because I cared for their children, should be embodied in that house, in which a family who waited for more than three years on the public housing waiting list now live. The productivity of those years was not mine alone, but the productivity of more than one hundred families plus my staff, and that house is a testament to the power of a democratic society and the enterprise of one individual. Me.
So Nullagine, I don't know which society you live in. I live in one which provides the opportunity for anyone and everyone to 'give it a go'. That I should have put my earnings of five years of 80 hour weeks into a residential property in 1994 and that the property has never been empty except when being refurbished, and that in the 13 years I have owned it I have provided work for the plumber, the electrician, the gardener, the air conditioning manufacturer and installer, ditto the ducted heating people, the paint companies, the carpet manufacturer, the curtain & blind people, the property manager, receptionist, bookkeeper, accountant, conveyancer, mortgage lender, bank etc etc
Is property ownership not productive? Actually, it is the hub of the local economy. Is investing in property being a parasite or a drain on society? Mmmmm, let me think for a minute - nope, it doesn't appear to be a problem for the local community or for society as a whole.
Is housing affordable? Yes, if you live within your means. Is housing expensive for people on limited or fixed incomes? Yes, it probably is, however in other times and other places people shared the cost of accommodation. In Australia, the fastest growing type of household is the single person household. Even students would rather live below the poverty line than share housing.
At the end of the day, when I open my bottle of fine, aged, time, I will be independent of pensions and able to continue to contribute to society with my capacity to go to the RSL for lunch, or to take the Senior Citz day trips, or to have my car serviced, and maybe pay for someone to clean the house and to read to me on Tuesday afternoons.
It is my right to receive the pension and any other government help I need. However, I have no intention of ever needing it. Although I have never planted a field of wheat or manufactured a motor vehicle or built a school, I would like to think that with something as humble as a brown brick, three bedroom Mission Brown house, that I have still contributed something.
Rentier capitalism? Yes, please, sounds like a great idea to me. Please send me details of meeting dates and venues. Be there or be square!
Cheers
Kristine
