this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2026
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

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If you pay 1% for one house, someone with 2 houses should pay 2%, and a company with 2000 homes should pay 2000%

That would make it increasingly difficult for mega companies to buy up everything and torture the housing market

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[–] HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Some places do this. I have heard a few Welsh areas have gone for much higher council tax (approximate equivalent to a shitty property tax) on second homes. They are allowed to charge up to 4x the normal rate.

If you are renting it out as a holiday rental you can be exempt from the normal council tax but they are now requiring you to actually rent it out. It must be available for at least 252 days of the year and actually used for at least 182 days so you can't just set rent to unaffordable amounts.

Hearing the crying about it has been great.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nice.
This gives me an idea.

Additional tax for rooms marked as "for rent", but going unrented for enough part of the year.
Calculation will also take into account recent evictions.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've had a similar idea for a while. There should be a fine/tax for unrented properties proportional to the amount being asked for rent. Any money collected from this goes to housing support for low-income renters.

This creates a market incentive to lower rents if you can't get someone in a unit.

[–] Pistachio@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] kestrel7_7@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

That + legalize squatting, we'll fill up these empty units real fucking quick.