来源：《每日电讯报》
原文刊登日期：2023年2月17日
It was utterly predictable: driving buy-to-let landlords out of the market, by making it much harder for them to earn a profit, was bound to limit the supply of homes available to tenants and push up rents. That seems to be exactly what has happened. Over the past few years, landlords have endured a barrage of punitive measures, particularly with regard to the tax treatment of their properties. Now, with mortgage rates higher, surveys report that a growing proportion plan to sell up across the UK.
这完全可以预见：让“买房出租”的房东更难盈利，会把他们赶出市场，继而必然会限制可供租户租赁的房屋供应，并推高租金。这似乎正是已经发生的事情。在过去的几年里，房东们忍受了一连串的惩罚措施，特别是在他们的房产税收待遇方面。现在，随着抵押贷款利率的上升，调查报告显示，越来越多的英国人计划出售房屋。
It is facile to think that this will necessarily be to the benefit of first-time buyers, as even some senior Conservatives seem to believe. Many people will not be in a position to purchase their own home because they do not have enough money for a deposit, and some will not want to. Renting tends to be particularly attractive to younger workers who have not yet settled down, and it will almost certainly harm the economy if they are priced out of doing so across entire cities.
就连一些资深的保守党人似乎也相信，认为这一定会有利于首次购房者。但许多人无法购买自己的房子，因为他们没有足够的钱来支付首付，有些人也不想买房。租房对那些还没有安顿下来的年轻员工尤其有吸引力，如果整个城市的租金太高，年轻人租不起房子，几乎肯定会损害经济。
Few would disagree that it has become too expensive for people to buy their first home. Conservatives, in particular, should fear the consequences of the gradual erosion of a property-owning democracy, in which hundreds of thousands are denied the opportunity to do what their parents and grandparents had done before. The answer to that, however, cannot be to target those who have been able to acquire property, particularly those small-scale landlords who rely on buy-to-let to support themselves in retirement. Robbing Peter to pay Paul tends to leave everyone the poorer.
对于人们来说，购买第一套住房已经变得过于昂贵，这一点几乎没有人会不同意。保守派尤其应该担心财产所有制民主逐渐被侵蚀的后果，在这种情况下，成千上万的人被剥夺了做他们父母和祖父母曾经做过的事情的机会。然而，这个问题的答案不能是针对那些有能力获得房产的人，尤其是那些依靠“买房出租”来养活自己退休的小规模房东。抢彼得的钱然后给保罗往往会让每个人都更穷。