US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes

Re:US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-fami... by austhrow743 on Wednesday January 07, 2026 @06:02PM (#46534493)

>It will make very little difference in the end.

It will make very little difference if Wall Street investors hold very little property.

Putting a finger on the scale of how much real estate is individually owned definitely makes a difference though. It makes it worse.

100,000 individuals who own 100,000 properties have far more political power than 10 companies who own 100,000 properties.

>If you want housing to be cheaper and renters to be better treated, increase supply. Everything else is window-dressing.

Yes. However supply is artificially restricted by government, to the approval of the average property owning voter. So more specifically, that is what needs to be changed. Everything else is window-dressing.

This is a country sliding further towards being us, with their housing being more restricted and more expensive.

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Re:US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-fami... by ZeWaka on Wednesday January 07, 2026 @06:33PM (#46534804)

> 100,000 individuals who own 100,000 properties have far more political power than 10 companies who own 100,000 properties.

Is that really true in the US?

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Re:US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-fami... by mpyne on Wednesday January 07, 2026 @08:11PM (#46535728)

100,000 votes (and really probably closer to 150,000 influenceable votes across those households) is a significant number compared to 10 companies who own an average of 10,000 properties each, yes.

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Re:US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-fami... by _silicon on Wednesday January 07, 2026 @08:52PM (#46536103)

Companies with tremendous wealth manipulate voters and lobby their representatives. Don’t presume that voters are remotely well-informed of who backs their interests.

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Re:US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-fami... by mpyne on Thursday January 08, 2026 @07:37PM (#46548612)

If wealth could simply buy elections then Clinton would have won over Trump in 2016 and Sanders would have won the primary over Biden in 2020.

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Re:US will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-fami... by austhrow743 on Wednesday January 07, 2026 @07:03PM (#46535128)

Consider every other expense that people have that's supplied by companies (see: literally everything). Why have those companies not successfully lobbied to prevent competition? Industries where it happens are the exception, not the rule.

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