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Tokyo is a good case study for how effective selective deregulation and zoning policy can lead to more efficient housing construction. In Minato ward — a des

Tokyo is a good case study for how effective selective deregulation and zoning policy can lead to more efficient housing construction. In Minato ward — a desirable 20 sq km slice of central Tokyo — the population is up 66 per cent over the past 20 years, from 145,000 to 241,000, an increase of about 100,000 residents. In the 121 sq km of San Francisco, the population grew by about the same number over 20 years, from 746,000 to 865,000 — a rise of 16 per cent. Yet whereas the price of a home in San Francisco and London has increased 231 per cent and 441 per cent respectively, Minato ward has absorbed its population boom with price rises of just 45 per cent. https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/08/12/tokyos-affordable-housing-strategy-build-build-build https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/08/12/tokyos-af... It also helps that Japan has a brilliant zoning system: http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html

davidf18 10y ago
Thank you. This is a great read and this is the suggestion Economist Cowan should have offered. "Harding wrote in the article, the city had 142,417 housing starts in 2014, which was “more than the 83,657 housing permits issued in the state of California (population 38.7m), or the 137,010 houses started in the entire country of England (population 54.3m)." Compare this, also, with the roughly 20,000 new residential units approved annually in New York City, the 23,500 units started in Los Angeles County, and the measly 5,000 homes constructed in 2015 throughout the entire Bay Area." And the true solution is to pass a law using Japan as an example: "The [Japanese] federal government recognized that these regulations were the problem, so in 2002, it passed the Urban Renaissance Law. The law stripped municipalities of the ability to control private property." Here is another interesting article from the same author, Scott Beyer pointed to by this article. https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/05/25/modern-zoning-would-have-killed-off-americas-dense-cities/#728d3f199005 https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/05/25/modern-zo...
- matt_wulfeck 10y ago
  > The law stripped municipalities of the ability to control private property. I can only dream. As someone who must post a permit and involve the city in order to remove a tree in my own back yard Our homes are micromanaged here. It's like the city has created a city-wide HOA.

davidf18 10y ago

Thank you. This is a great read and this is the suggestion Economist Cowan should have offered. "Harding wrote in the article, the city had 142,417 housing starts in 2014, which was “more than the 83,657 housing permits issued in the state of California (population 38.7m), or the 137,010 houses started in the entire country of England (population 54.3m)." Compare this, also, with the roughly 20,000 new residential units approved annually in New York City, the 23,500 units started in Los Angeles County, and the measly 5,000 homes constructed in 2015 throughout the entire Bay Area." And the true solution is to pass a law using Japan as an example: "The [Japanese] federal government recognized that these regulations were the problem, so in 2002, it passed the Urban Renaissance Law. The law stripped municipalities of the ability to control private property." Here is another interesting article from the same author, Scott Beyer pointed to by this article. https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/05/25/modern-zoning-would-have-killed-off-americas-dense-cities/#728d3f199005 https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/05/25/modern-zo...

matt_wulfeck 10y ago
> The law stripped municipalities of the ability to control private property. I can only dream. As someone who must post a permit and involve the city in order to remove a tree in my own back yard Our homes are micromanaged here. It's like the city has created a city-wide HOA.