Quote Originally Posted by superfurryhibby View Post
This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
I'll definitely dismiss views from someone who is a senior figure in ultra right think tanks and a proponent of healthcare without an NHS

Fair points about homes that are empty. However statistics aren't the full story. Britain has always had a greater incidence of reliance on the rented property (social and private sector) than comparable European countries, How does that influence those statistics? Does it really matter how many homes are empty in Lithuania or Poland? I'm not so sure about your statement about empty houses driving down rents. Are rents really cheaper in the likes of Dublin (comparable ?) and Edinburgh?

TBH, I'm only really interested in Scotland and the impact of gentrification and social cleansing in the communities I know best. Housing is only one, albeit significant, manifestation of massive and social, health and economic inequality. There are many others.

I'm much more interested to know why Edinburgh has 9000 empty homes. As the statistics I posted show, that is a significantly higher number than other British cities of a similar size (Glasgow, Sheffield, Newcastle). Is it because property and home ownership is more commoditised than in comparable cities. People buying just for investment, or do we have lots more minted people who live in their second homes? Given the lucrative nature of the rental market here, compared to those other cities, you would imagine our empty house numbers to be lower.....maybe they're all being air b'nb by tax avoidant ruthless capitalist pigs?
Loads in Europe have a much higher percentage of renters like Germany where its the norm. They also have over 4 times the spare homes than Scotland, three times Edinburgh.

9000 sounds a lot but at 3% of homes free that would still be the third smallest of any oecd nation.

Uk has one of the lowest amount of landlords in Europe and people owning second homes so we can't really blame that for prices. What we do have is a fraction of the spare homes compared with every nation. Where are the youth living with parents going to move into when we also have massive immigration figures. It's a sellers market. The most simple of economics says bild more and the landlords have less power to charge what they want.

If we are expecting 400k net immigration per year we obviously need that as a minimum that but it should be nearer 1 million. We've been averaging close to 700k net migration and building 200k homes them wondering why house prices are rising 😆