On one hand I understand the value of the EU to my country’s (Portugal) development on the other I take real issue with how the influx of foreign capital has priced out most common workers from buying a house before they’re 30/40, which directly impacts one’s ability to start a family. Two of our greatest obstacles to wellbeing.
I love some initiatives like the tighter regulation on big tech, but fear the power of a supranational organisation over Portugal’s democratic process. An organisation which is perceived as not so democratic.
That’s a funny way of wording the question since it never stopped, but there’s a few recent things I can point to. If you need a time frame I’d say the last several months.
The city nearest to me abolished single-family zoning and is seeing a ton of construction and sharply falling prices. I might finally be able to break into the market. We have a new federal government department designed to start producing housing en mass, called Build Canada Homes. Housing prices are also easing off across the country, although certain cities are having more trouble, and the temporary scaling back of immigration while building continues is probably the main factor.
Maybe in Portugal there’s more space issues, but it’s not Hong Kong so I don’t thing that’s the whole problem. Because it’s Portugal I kind of suspect there’s regulatory issues.
Every country should heavily tax non-resident property owners. They should also increasingly tax every property someone owns over 1, to the point that owning more than 3 homes becomes completely unrealistic for most and middle class landlords disappear.
Everyone should own their own residence (or have the opportunity to). Housing prices would collapse if they weren’t being used as a financial vehicle for investments instead of housing that degrades without upkeep.
Taxing the ultra-wealthy out of existence
Taxing landlords out of existence
I believe those are every societies largest priorities.
I’d attribute that problem to Portugal specifically though. Especially to the taxation policies that incentivized people to move to Portugal but without requiring them to specifically set up business in Portugal. This resulted into many people working in other countries to move to Portugal to pay lower taxation. This indeed increased prices, especially for rent but also in general, as those people had higher purchasing power but did not significantly increase salaries. There is a reason why Lisbon is the heaven of digital nomads.
I hear things are changing, but I don’t know too much about it. Indeed I know many people in Lisbon who work mostly in other countries. Sure they pay taxes, but that doesn’t directly translate into higher paying jobs.
The tax incentives for digital nomads are a big issue for sure. I love meeting digital nomads, always a fun conversation, I just don’t understand why we should subsidize highly paid individuals looking for a cheap place to live for a while. They do not create roots or care much about the country they live in. If things go south they will leave and the people of the country they enjoyed will be burdened with all the issues.
I say we welcome all digital nomads if they wish to live with us, but they should pay their due like everyone else.
Indeed, however this is not a common problem across Europe. That would not explain otherwise why most digital nomads are mostly Europeans. Such issue was mostly generated by the specific tax policies of Portugal who incentivized rich people to move into the country without ensuring this would lead to a common good.
All in all, I do not believe this is a problem strictly related to the fact that Portugal is part of the European Union, but rather the result of poor policy planning.
Mind you, I’m not saying the policies were without reason, but probably did not obtain the expected results.
The same or at least similar increase in real estate prices has happened in non-EU countries around the world, and the primary beneficiaries are the local upper-class not the foreign investors. It is a complex topic, and EU regulation does play a role in it, but overall I would say that the EU isn’t the primary driver behind this.
I don’t think the EU per se is the reason for this. I think the free flow of foreign capital into industries of essential goods is more to blame, and that lax regulation does come with the EU.
I feel like the EU is beginning to experience some growth patterns that the USA experienced in the later 20th century where the was a mass migration towards the American Sunbelt in search of better weather and a lower cost of living. However, without the mass building that occurred in the USA during that time, the migration is causing housing unaffordability as working Portuguese families can’t compete with northern pensioners.
I don’t know much about the American phenomenon you mentioned so I can’t comment on that.
In Portugal we have more than 170,000 (state/private) empty houses. A fund of more than 100 million euros (and counting) for the renovation/construction of public/cooperative housing which has been collecting dust for 2 years now.
We have the resources to fix this, but our politicians seem more preoccupied in punishing 10K people for being Muslim (they have valid concerns, wrong solutions)
Because at it’s core, the EU is still a neoliberal organization that promotes business interests over public welfare. It exists to ensure giant corporations in Europes developed core can compete against massive non-European firms. The only reason they don’t push for American levels of cruelty is that the people of the EU would riot and overthrow their governments if their hard earned benefits (universal healthcare, worker protections, pensions, mandatory vacations) were severely threatened.
This is a confusing issue to me.
On one hand I understand the value of the EU to my country’s (Portugal) development on the other I take real issue with how the influx of foreign capital has priced out most common workers from buying a house before they’re 30/40, which directly impacts one’s ability to start a family. Two of our greatest obstacles to wellbeing.
I love some initiatives like the tighter regulation on big tech, but fear the power of a supranational organisation over Portugal’s democratic process. An organisation which is perceived as not so democratic.
Why don’t you just build more houses? That’s what my country is doing to solve our problem.
Canada is building more houses? Since when?
That’s a funny way of wording the question since it never stopped, but there’s a few recent things I can point to. If you need a time frame I’d say the last several months.
The city nearest to me abolished single-family zoning and is seeing a ton of construction and sharply falling prices. I might finally be able to break into the market. We have a new federal government department designed to start producing housing en mass, called Build Canada Homes. Housing prices are also easing off across the country, although certain cities are having more trouble, and the temporary scaling back of immigration while building continues is probably the main factor.
Maybe in Portugal there’s more space issues, but it’s not Hong Kong so I don’t thing that’s the whole problem. Because it’s Portugal I kind of suspect there’s regulatory issues.
Every country should heavily tax non-resident property owners. They should also increasingly tax every property someone owns over 1, to the point that owning more than 3 homes becomes completely unrealistic for most and middle class landlords disappear.
Everyone should own their own residence (or have the opportunity to). Housing prices would collapse if they weren’t being used as a financial vehicle for investments instead of housing that degrades without upkeep.
I believe those are every societies largest priorities.
I’d attribute that problem to Portugal specifically though. Especially to the taxation policies that incentivized people to move to Portugal but without requiring them to specifically set up business in Portugal. This resulted into many people working in other countries to move to Portugal to pay lower taxation. This indeed increased prices, especially for rent but also in general, as those people had higher purchasing power but did not significantly increase salaries. There is a reason why Lisbon is the heaven of digital nomads. I hear things are changing, but I don’t know too much about it. Indeed I know many people in Lisbon who work mostly in other countries. Sure they pay taxes, but that doesn’t directly translate into higher paying jobs.
The tax incentives for digital nomads are a big issue for sure. I love meeting digital nomads, always a fun conversation, I just don’t understand why we should subsidize highly paid individuals looking for a cheap place to live for a while. They do not create roots or care much about the country they live in. If things go south they will leave and the people of the country they enjoyed will be burdened with all the issues.
I say we welcome all digital nomads if they wish to live with us, but they should pay their due like everyone else.
Indeed, however this is not a common problem across Europe. That would not explain otherwise why most digital nomads are mostly Europeans. Such issue was mostly generated by the specific tax policies of Portugal who incentivized rich people to move into the country without ensuring this would lead to a common good. All in all, I do not believe this is a problem strictly related to the fact that Portugal is part of the European Union, but rather the result of poor policy planning. Mind you, I’m not saying the policies were without reason, but probably did not obtain the expected results.
The same or at least similar increase in real estate prices has happened in non-EU countries around the world, and the primary beneficiaries are the local upper-class not the foreign investors. It is a complex topic, and EU regulation does play a role in it, but overall I would say that the EU isn’t the primary driver behind this.
I don’t think the EU per se is the reason for this. I think the free flow of foreign capital into industries of essential goods is more to blame, and that lax regulation does come with the EU.
I feel like the EU is beginning to experience some growth patterns that the USA experienced in the later 20th century where the was a mass migration towards the American Sunbelt in search of better weather and a lower cost of living. However, without the mass building that occurred in the USA during that time, the migration is causing housing unaffordability as working Portuguese families can’t compete with northern pensioners.
I don’t know much about the American phenomenon you mentioned so I can’t comment on that.
In Portugal we have more than 170,000 (state/private) empty houses. A fund of more than 100 million euros (and counting) for the renovation/construction of public/cooperative housing which has been collecting dust for 2 years now. We have the resources to fix this, but our politicians seem more preoccupied in punishing 10K people for being Muslim (they have valid concerns, wrong solutions)
Because at it’s core, the EU is still a neoliberal organization that promotes business interests over public welfare. It exists to ensure giant corporations in Europes developed core can compete against massive non-European firms. The only reason they don’t push for American levels of cruelty is that the people of the EU would riot and overthrow their governments if their hard earned benefits (universal healthcare, worker protections, pensions, mandatory vacations) were severely threatened.