Or a numbered corporation can do it. And then it and all its assets purchased by a different corp and so on and so forth… And since you’re buying the company, not the real estate, per se, you get your very clever lawyers to get you round that tax.
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When people hear about increasing density they tend to think about the obvious increases in density like a bunch of high rise towers along a transportation corridor. But there are other options and a mix would make for more walkable more dense neighborhoods that don’t look like Singapore. Here’s a good visualization of how different strategies would change the residential landscape in California.
How California can build 3.5 million new homes
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Hong Kong definitely works for some people. I suppose there is something [good] to be said about urban density in certain contexts.
The multimillionaire Chow joined the Forbes list of the highest-paid actors in the world for the first time in 2015, sharing 24th place with Russell Crowe.
Yet in wealthy Hong Kong, he can be spotted taking public transport and lining up for tickets to watch his own movie.
Now, he has pledged to give away his fortune of a reported HK$5.6bn (£570m).
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Well, no matter what tax you implement people will try to avoid it, but money laundering is the one activity where people actually try to pay the taxes. Since corporations are defined by statute, not by the constitution, they are actually extremely vulnerable to government oversight within the borders if any government cared to do it. I think a government that would be willing to put a 150% tax on property sales over $10M would probably be willing to fight back against obvious tax evasion. We all know that no such government will exist, but I’m still adding it to my list of great policy ideas next to making a zero-profit government-run gambling establishments and a professional college for sex workers.
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As someone living in a hot part of Seattle I am seeing this. 20 years ago I along with the spouse could afford mortgage on a 3 bedroom house. It was a bit more than renting a 2 bedroom apartment but hey yard, payment won’t go up, etc.
Now a one bedroom in the area is more than our mortgage payment. I will say it is nice to see all the mixed use (retail on the bottom floor and apartments/condos above) going in but unless you are earning 150k+ I don’t know who can afford it as the rents are as stated above. Add in the new light rail line that is coming (which is a big driver for the development) and the houses really haven’t dropped in price much with the latest down turn. It still boggles me that my house could sell for more than half a million.
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As of 2017 (CPS/HVS), 14% of rental units in Alabama are vacant. North Dakota is even higher. The problem is a misalignment of where the vacant housing is and where the jobs are. Would Chinese investors trying to evade Chinese currency limits invest in mobile homes in Birmingham Alabama? The commute from Alabama to Greenwich Connecticut is horrible.
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See I dunno that you’re starting to see it at that rate. But very few cities are, and only in certain restricted areas. My direct experience is with NYC. And at $150k+ there are huge chunks of Manhattan and Brooklyn where you could not even afford to rent. And a slightly larger area where buying would be a push. What I’m talking about is a circumstance where even the wealthy and very wealthy have been pushed out. And all that remains is that ever loving 1%. And corporations. And money laundering schemes for the Iranian government.
You can’t really tell from looking at it, what with all the workers and tourism. But the central part of Manhattan is effectively a ghost town. No one lives there, very few to no independent/small businesses exist. Its all vacant investment properties, corporate owned housing for travelling middle managers. Offices for huge companies. And stuff owned by chains or restaurant and retail “groups” with centralized corporate management. Without edging up on the billionaire level, you’d never be able to actually afford anything there. And increasingly the only businesses that can afford a presence are listed in major stock indexes. Or tax write offs/side lines for the already extremely wealthy.
I know a couple who were as a household making somewhere around $125k between the two of them. When they started looking into buying around New York City the most feasible options to stay some what central to where they both worked involved $2 million dollars and coop/maintenance fee that exceeded their already extremely high rent. When they looked at options that made a lick of financial sense. They found they’d have to pick from distant Queens or Brooklyn, Long Island, Yonkers, or New Jersey. All of which sort of defeated the purpose of buying, as they were trying to avoid getting pushed that far out by raising rents and short term leases. And they still involved paying as much or more than they were at the time.
So they moved back to Philly. They’re still renting but pay 1/3 the rate for a 3 bedroom with 2x the space as they were for the old one bedroom. The savings are sending her to law school, and buying isn’t a fantasy anymore. The “crazy expensive” houses in their neighborhood are $500k 5 floor row homes in need of renovation.
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And thus was Imagineering born…
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