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> quickly create scalable affordable housing in major cities? Even in Finland, with relatively good salaries for construction workers, and high quality buildin
by sampo 11y ago
> quickly create scalable affordable housing in major cities?
Even in Finland, with relatively good salaries for construction workers, and high quality buildings insulated to withstand Finnish winters, building an apartment building usually costs under 2000€/m2 ($165/sq-ft).
It is not the construction that makes apartments expensive, it is the price of land in a good location.
So the problem is mostly political. Existing residents usually strongly oppose building new homes for new people in their neighborhoods. Especially if you'd like to build higher and denser than the area previously was. And the potential future residents do not have a right to vote, only the existing residents can vote. And even if you can buy a piece of land, city politicians/bureaucrats may not give you permission to build as much square footage as you might want. Because the want to "preserve the character of the neighborhood".
So usually cities do all kind of kicking and screaming to resist growth.
- trhway 11y ago>Especially if you'd like to build higher and denser than the area previously was. because typical "higher and denser" coupled with bottom-line optimization by the developer results in making crappy, less livable environment. More people means need for more transportation, more parks ... - the developer in cooperation with the city could build parks inside/on-top the new high-rise, build new transportation options, etc.., yet it would cut into the bottom-line. Classical tragedy of commons. So existing residents resist more load on the existing commons, yet i think it would be different if new construction was creating more commons and/or really improving existing.
- tracker1 11y agoIs that to own, or rent? If that's rent, then that's insanely high... If it's to own (assuming modest mgt fees), that's not too bad. Right now my rent in a fairly nice place in Arizona (Tempe) is $1400/month. Similar places in SF/NYC are 3-4 times that much.
- sampo 11y ago> Is that to own, or rent? To own. Apartments in central areas of Helsinki typically sell between 4000€/m2 to 8000/m2. So the cost of just constructing the building would be something between 20% to 40-50% of the total price. It is the land price, not the construction, that dominates apartment prices in any city.