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Can you elaborate? I'm not sure what you mean by more value from an investment? I see housing prices have been growing enormously in the last few years, but th

• pdonis 10y ago
  > I'm not sure what you mean by more value from an investment? I mean that people get more benefit from it. What specifically counts as a benefit depends on the person. > the appartements are exactly the same as they were twenty years ago. This is going to depend a lot on what area you are in. In my area, much of the housing is fairly new, because either old housing was torn down and replaced, or housing was expanded into land that used to be something else (mostly farms or woods). > I don't see how I can get more 'value' out of an appartement that is older, not renovated, and costs twice as much. Any capital investment depreciates, and eventually you will need to reinvest in it in order to continue getting value from it. But suppose the average dwelling lasted 50 years before needing to be renovated or replaced, instead of 20. That would be an obvious benefit, even if the original purchase price of the dwelling was higher; in fact many people might be willing to pay the higher price in order to get a dwelling that would last so much longer. Of course I understand that this is not what we currently see in most housing markets. But I think it is highly relevant to the question of whether "make housing cheaper" is always the right goal if you're trying to reinvent housing.