> Just an investment in a corporation that happens to home a bunch of houses.
But what's the point? If they can't get money out then it doesn't matter. The only reason houses are worth holding as an asset is public bodies stopping the creation of more housing, driving the price up. You fix that with less state interference, not more.
That's the exact opposite of what happens in the real world.
In the world the state builds and owns a lot public housing and this depresses rents and property values.
Countries stop doing this when policy is captured by neoliberal dogma. The UK is a perfect example. Housing was relatively affordable before a disastrous "right to buy" policy in the 70s, with extra enforced restrictions on state house building, destroyed the national housing market.
Now most housing is unfeasibly expensive. And hundreds of thousands of properties stand empty because they're owned solely as investments.
This is excellent for private landlords, property speculators, and older home-owners. It's an utter disaster for everyone under the age of forty because rents are unaffordable and ownerships is unimaginable.
Right to Buy didn't destroy the housing market. The same people who lived in council housing bought it under Right to Buy.
The problem was not building more housing to cope with increased demand. That would've happened regardless of whether the Right to Buyers were renting off the council or had bought their property.
> In the world the state builds and owns a lot public housing and this depresses rents and property values.
Public housing, but not housing. The state controls what can be built where, which can drive up demand enough that property becomes a valuable enough asset to let it stand empty. Giving the state more power on top of that to correct that incompetent use of power seems worth questioning.
But what's the point? If they can't get money out then it doesn't matter. The only reason houses are worth holding as an asset is public bodies stopping the creation of more housing, driving the price up. You fix that with less state interference, not more.
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