Canadian mega landlord using AI 'pricing scheme' as it hikes rents
https://breachmedia.ca/canadian-mega-landlord-ai-pricing-scheme-hikes-rents/Like generative AI for art, it doesn’t cleanly fit into any existing governance. I would assume new, and irritating complex, laws will be attempted to be written to control this development as it has more immediate real works impact than other forms of “AI”.
We need tools that arent making choices based on profit increase but humanitarian necessity (which is probably impossible)
Tools such as :
- finding people to share mortgages with, negotiating problems encountered with roomates, ways to re-shuffle roomates around to find better compatibility, incentives for being less of a dick and contributing to happier roomatism
- collective action in an area such as purchasing cheap out of town space with lots of living area and "roughing it" for a while to put downward pressure on rent prices, maybe even negotiating particular prices to trigger a large number of renter signups ( no way this is legal, but it will get bad enough we are going to have to break some rules)
- shared mortgage investment that is based upon agreed lower reasonable profit, or even money parking, instead of maximizing real estate profit (there has to be some philanthropes who would put there money into this?)
- I hate to have to mention negative landlord tracking, but the worst of the worst gets away with so much shit, we need to come up as close to vigilantism we can get while not breaking laws. I foresee the need for tools where we can track exact letter of law harassment limits etc for the worst offenders who are getting away with too much uncaught illegal and immoral landlording
The coops keep their rents below that of the competition to attract new members, and can even reduce the rents after the initial outlay has been payed off.
This would then create a number of large semi-altruistic competitors that would throw sand into the capitalistic machine and inhibit price gouging.
https://archive.is/20240131194845/https://www.nytimes.com/20...
There are also people who can move to other locations.
If rents are up, you need more houses, it's really not that complicated.
The article blames "AI" for raising rents, and then later says, "well actually, everyone raised rents".
You can have all the AI in the world, and even all the collusion you can manage, but competition still exists, raise rent to the point that people won't rent, you'll have an empty apartment. Lower it (i.e. ignore the collusion) and you'll fill that spot.
The law of Supply and Demand still works.
The only kind of collusion that might break that law is if landlords are forced by the agreement not to lower rent to compete.
It's really very simple: What's the vacancy rate? If it's low, prices are going up, it's as simple as that. Forget the boogeyman (AKA AI), build more houses.
The complaint states:
> Across America, RealPage sells landlords commercial revenue management software. RealPage develops, markets, and sells this software to enable landlords to sidestep vigorous competition to win renters’ business. Landlords, who would otherwise be competing with each other, submit on a daily basis their competitively sensitive information to RealPage. This nonpublic, material, and granular rental data includes, among other information, a landlord’s rental prices from executed leases, lease terms, and future occupancy. RealPage collects a broad swath of such data from competing landlords, combines it, and feeds it to an algorithm.
Based on this process and algorithm, RealPage provides daily, near realtime pricing “recommendations” back to competing landlords. These recommendations are based on the sensitive information of their rivals. But these are more than just “recommendations.” Because, in its own words, a “rising tide raises all ships,” RealPage monitors compliance by landlords to its recommendations. RealPage also reviews and weighs in on landlords’ other policies, including trying to—and often succeeding in— ending renter-friendly concessions (like a free month’s rent or waived fees) to attract or retain renters. A significant number of landlords then effectively agree to outsource their pricing function to RealPage with auto acceptance or other settings such that RealPage as a middleman, and not the free market, determines the price that a renter will pay. Competing landlords choose to share their information with RealPage to “eliminate the guessing game” about what their competitors are doing and ultimately take instructions from RealPage on how to make business decisions to “optimize”—or in reality, maximize—rents.
You don't have to say anything else. That's collusion.