"Houses are built to be lived in," Leech said. "Let's add a temporary rule: anyone who wants to transfer ownership of a house must go through the procedures at the city hall."
"Buying a house to live in is perfectly fine, of course. I can even tolerate people cleverly exploiting minor loopholes in the rules. However, we must crack down on house flipping... Property transfers will be heavily taxed."
He would ensure that everyone could live in a new house. As long as you were willing to work in Porcupine Territory, you could definitely afford one.
But that was in the future. For now, housing was scarce, and it was inevitable that some people would get clever and try to profit at Leech's expense.
For example, some might buy multiple houses, raise the prices, and sell them to craftsmen with money to spare.
The simplest method was to make sure buyers and sellers discovered that not only would they fail to make a profit this way, but they would actually lose money.
