Politics has allowed housing to cease being a basic right and become an object of speculation. While wages stagnate, rents and purchase prices skyrocket, driven by investment funds and large landlords. The hypocrisy lies in the fact that those who legislate are often owners of multiple properties, benefiting from a system that treats four walls as a simple number in a portfolio.
Price algorithms and short-term rental platforms 🏠
Technological development has accelerated this transformation. Platforms like Airbnb or idealista use dynamic pricing algorithms that optimize property performance by the second, pushing out local residents. Added to this is the tokenization of properties, which allows selling shares of an apartment as if they were stocks. The result is a market where data and artificial intelligence dictate who can afford a roof, while empty homes are counted as profitable assets.
The apartment that is no longer yours, but trades on the stock market 📉
So now you know: your future home may not be for living in, but for an investment fund to sell to another fund. They call it real estate liquidity. Meanwhile, you pay rent that goes up every year, but at least you are comforted knowing your landlord can buy a yacht with the profits. The next time you see a For Sale sign, remember that it might not be a house, but an ETF with four walls and a leaky roof.