current owners want to keep the inventory low [...] owners are afraid tall building I'm slightly sceptical of this argument, because every individ

current owners want to keep the inventory low [...] owners are afraid tall building I'm slightly sceptical of this argument, because every individual new building isn't enough to impact the market. In big cities the value of a low-rise house is almost entirely the value of the land on which it sits, and the owners would vastly increase their wealth if the zoning laws were changed so as to allow high-rise construction. Source of information: I own a low-rise house in the center of one of the world's biggest and most expensive cities, and I've tried hard to get building permission for adding a single floor, but that was denied on ground of making my building "out of character" with the neighbouring building. I suspect that re-zoning is simply not a vote-winner (like e.g. adding a new runway to an airport), so politicians from all sides shy away from it.