The resurgence of buy-to-let housing is morally wrong (2013)
Never heard of this term, but it sounds.. normal? I’m not really clear on the morality issue here; it seems to be that 1. People should own not rent, and 2. BTL players tend to operate as bad owners.<p>Point 1. is just absurd, because that’s obviously true but it’s also obviously true that renters rent for a reason — they don’t want to, or can’t afford, the cost of total ownership over the property; telling them not to rent is simply telling them not to have shelter (you must be in a good position, or you shouldn’t have a position at all is a ridiculous stance)<p>Point 2 is reasonable, but it’s not clear to me the relationship between BTL and bad ownership — the moral hazard seems to be purely with.. the owners themselves. There’s nothing described in the article that suggests BTL incentivizes or drives bad ownership practice, beyond giving the opportunity to be any kind of owner at all