01-11-2021, 11:25 AM
(01-11-2021, 01:59 AM)plam Wrote:(01-10-2021, 11:37 PM)jeffster Wrote: That's crazy.
How is it the housing is so insanely expensive? I suppose low interest rates is one reason, but still.
A common question throughout the Western world. In some places there are more obvious explanations than others. But we don't know the general answer I think.
It is actually a big deal right now in NZ for instance.
We’re used to being able to sprawl cheap suburbs out to infinity. But as this process continues, it imposes a large and constantly-growing maintenance burden, which is beginning to bite. Also we’ve finally noticed that on the whole it would be better if Southern Ontario wasn’t one huge city from Stratford to Cobourg and Niagara Falls to Barrie; so rural areas are more restricted in development than previously.
Meanwhile zoning forbids densifying most of the city. I’m thinking of Toronto, which is now exporting some of their demand here, but it’s probably true in almost every Canadian city. When I say “densifying”, I’m not (primarily) referring to huge towers but to simple, almost invisible, changes like replacing a single-family home with a triplex of 3 apartments stacked on one another.
So basically, cheap spread out construction isn’t actually that cheap in the long term when all costs are taken into account; and cheap dense construction isn’t allowed.