Cubans Set for Big Change: Right to Buy Homes

[Recursion]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/world/americas/03cuba.html?_r=1&ref=world

HAVANA — José is an eager almost-entrepreneur with big plans for Cuban real estate. Right now he works illegally on trades, linking up families who want to swap homes and pay a little extra for an upgrade.

But when Cuba legalizes buying and selling by the end of the year — as the government promised again this week — José and many others expect a cascade of changes: higher prices, mass relocation, property taxes and a flood of money from Cubans in the United States and around the world.

“There’s going to be huge demand,” said José, 36, who declined to give his last name, stepping away from the crowd and keeping an eye out for eavesdroppers. “It’s been prohibited for so long.”

Private property is the nucleus of capitalism, of course, so the plan to legitimize it here in a country of slogans like “socialism or death” strikes many Cubans as jaw-dropping. Indeed, most people expect onerous regulations and already, the plan outlined by the state media would suppress the market by limiting Cubans to one home or apartment and requiring full-time residency.

The times, they are a-changing...

[xoom]

1. good for them.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. Maybe They Can Buy Some Of The Foreclosed Homes Here

~

[Hangingon]

6. Another Mariel boatlift is all we need.

[2Design]

3. hopefully it won't be all developers and corporations who get it all

the people could wind up worse off as they turn this into another capitalist people eating place gobbling up the poor and tossing them to the streets

[Shagbark Hickory]

5. I'd be very concerned that will happen.

[Shagbark Hickory]

4. If they do, I hope for their sake they regulate it to protect their cubans from getting priced out.

They could really show us a thing or two on how to prevent bubbles.