It’s not a new idea, but it’s a big one – one we should not ignore. Can a council’s regulations limit how many private properties one person can own? Say limit it to three or something? If they could, that would minimise the flow-down effect of locals and non-locals calling up real estate agents and buying up whatever they can for their investment portfolios. Doesn’t one guy own around 1,000 properties in Byron? When I was studying public health the idea was to stop the problem at the source, and not have to fix the accumulated and ongoing problems at the other end. Like fixing a leak.
The 60- or 90-day holiday letting cap would certainly help hugely, it is a great idea. Hopefully it will remedy the situation, but gosh it would be nice for the housing market to have some space to breathe.
It’s a moral thing too. Houses are a basic need, a necessity, and not commodities to be used for profit. Something needs to change. If one council does it, it could eventually reach around the entire country. Will we ever have the power to do that? How do we make these changes?
The next generations are already stuffed when it comes to owning their own home. How can we reverse this? We need regulations around the basic need of housing.
Don’t build more, just so more rich investors can gobble them up. Share the ones we already have. How many homes were empty on Census night? These are mostly holiday lets, and people’s investments, sitting there with no-one in them while so many live in their cars or on the streets. Let them invest in something else, like green energy, and leave the houses alone.
What is currently allowed is unsustainable and immoral. We are humans, we can’t forget that. We need each other, and if we don’t cooperate, it doesn’t work for anyone. Rich investors will have no hardworking locals to serve them at their favourite cafe, or fix their car, or serve their holidaymakers. We are one mass of people, the organism called humanity if you zoom out far enough. Allowing the cancer of greed to continue to take hold will not fare well for anyone.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
