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Comment by iso1631

2 days ago

Which comprises

1) Cost of land per year (which won't change as you'd be paying $10k a year tax rather than $10k a year in interest on the loan taken to buy the land)

2) Cost of building per year (which won't change)

I don't think that logic works because if I'm paying for a loan, I'm not just paying interest, I'm also paying against principal. So in the new, landtax world, I'm building less equity for the same rental cashflow. If I'm thinking of building a unit for rental, I look at all the costs over the next 10-30 years, and all the expected revenue, including eventually owning an asset with some perpetual value. If we have higher taxes in perpetuity then that final asset has lower value and I need to charge more rent to make the same profit in that timespan.

Not to mention that many real estate investors don't use loans, and that the banks giving out loans understand the lack of equity being built and demand higher interest given the inherently lower collateral (greater risk).