Chavez Seizes Apartments

Chavez is at it again and this time he is not taking vacant land to build apartments for the poor. He’s confiscating new apartments from the builders! Associated Press is reporting that he has ordered governmental officials to seize control of six residential apartment complexes and eight gated communities where he claimed, that developers were unjustly boosting prices; calling it “housing fraud” , and his act of seizure an act of “justice” .

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela

Reaction from the population seems to be mixed, with business leaders on one side of the issue and some residents on the other. An investigation was prompted by some complaints that buyers were being charged high interest rates after fixing a price before construction and placing a down payment on their unit years ago.

Chavez calls it a “type of organized crime” and has decided to put an end to it. The devil is in the details, and SHTF America doesn’t have all of the details, but speculators were probably trying to lock in prices expecting an increase in value during construction, and not anticipating a drop in value or higher interest rates when the units came on line.

Companies accused of violating consumer protection regulations deny any wrongdoing because they do not control interest rates. Chavez does. Maybe he ought to initiate a low interest rate program from the fund that he uses to finance his mistresses.