I might be biased because I am a landlord (renting out apartments in the same building I live in. All are the same size and standard I live in) and from a country with extremely strong renters protection. (You basically cannot cancel a contract unless you have a very good reason for it - only provable and reasonable personal use, massive non payment of rent over month or destruction of property counts) And I only became a Landlord a few years ago - before that I rented. And tbh,most of my small scale landlords were very pretty okay. Never had a rent increase, most repaired things pretty fast, had no issues when we moved.

We had two assholes, yes, but these at least left us in peace.

Now I try to follow the good examples. We rent out our apartments at slightly below “average market rate”(a legal definition published by the local government here) even though we would be legally allowed to go higher due to standard provided and location. But these 100€-200€ per month less I get gave me the opportunity to choose my renters much more carefully and rent out to young but very nice families-and they got something which is ideal for kids. (Big garden, playground literally opposite the house, nature reserve nearby). And they don’t bother me with ridiculous things(like “too much crying babies at night”…A friend had that )while I make sure things get fixed asap. (I generally react within 24h, fix it myself if it’s something small and have a list of handyman for more advanced things ready - they usually are on scene within 48h) I hope they are happy renters and stay happy - they are my neighbours after all and I would hate to see them leave. But maybe it’s just me,being as left leaning as I am…

While I can understand that people are anti Landlords I am more of a proponent to limit institutional landlords/big enterprises and especially to strengthen rental laws in favour of renters. For Germany: Give renters the legal means to force repairs and upkeep on landlords (while it is in theory possible here for a renter to simply contract a company and bill the landlord once the landlord has not reacted for a certain time it is a huge financial burden, we need to change that), make it a criminal offence to rent out apartments unsuitable for living, make it easier to persecute landlords which are intentionally endangering renters (e.g. badly maintained gas heating) and most importantly, limit the way companies can force their renters to pay ancillary costs. These are paid in addition to rent here and cover heating,upkeep of public spaces,etc. - While the renter has the right to get very detailed calculations and receipts, some bigger companies simply decided to create their own companies for these things - so the garden is maintained by the Landlord Garding Inc, the power is supplied by Landlord Power Inc., etc…This is outrageous and a scam,imho. As a landlord I only wish to get a better protection/option to evict people who intentionally lie on their applications and for fucks sake,make it a proper criminal offence if you intentionally structurally damage a apartment and then simply abandon it.(Friends had a renter rip out the copper wires and then abandon the apartment. They found out later that the renter did this to 12 other landlords as well)

And tax capital income fully,for fucks sake. I get taxed, as it does not count as “financial market income”. If I would sell the house to a company that I own and get my money from there? No problem then.

(BTW: My renters pay their power directly to the power company of their choice, heating is simply paid by actual use, for common electricity I can supply them below market rate as I am part of an energy collective and that’s it.)