One useful thing though is that corporate owners dont need to sell, so transaction and mtg taxes will be lower over the long term
According to [1], the average rate (or prime rate?) right now is 3.18% for a 30 year mortgage. OTOH, rate for 30 year "High Quality Market Corporate Bond" is 3.38%.
> and they are more efficient managers than individual homeowners, so this might be a more efficient way of providing housing.
They might be more efficient at being landlords, but that doesn't exactly translate into higher efficiency when it comes to providing housing. Owning a house and doing the repairs yourself is probably much cheaper than hiring someone to do it, not to mention you save all the taxes on the imputed rent.
why doesn't it?
If a corporation can, with the same amount of capital as an individual, produce more units of housing, then isn't that a desirable result?
Also, regarding owning a house being cheaper - it really depends on the savings from taxes. If you own, you lose the opportunity cost of the locked-up capital in the asset, which might be high.
But of course, there are non-financial concerns with buying vs renting. The higher income earner is more likely to want to buy, as their taxes would be more efficient that way. And the guarantee that you cannot get kicked out, unlike renters, is a good plus.
This sounds like a good thing to me. Why will it turn out badly?
Call me skeptical, but I don't think the average person would share in the benefit of that efficiency.
... and property taxes.
