generation X will almost not be buying a home for until their late 30s. Why is that a problem? Assuming the usual repayment schedule of 25-30 years, that m

generation X will almost not be buying a home for until their late 30s. Why is that a problem? Assuming the usual repayment schedule of 25-30 years, that means the houses are paid off before retirement, i.e. before they stop having an income. That's exactly how it should be. Most people are too unstable (in many senses of the work) in their 20s to take on a major responsibility like a house. rent contol. This leads to massive misallocation of resources such as illegally subletting at market price. It's quite simple in fact: supply and demand of dwellings needs to be in synch. If you have immigration and/or reduction in family size, you need to build more. For various reasons the obvious solution is typically rejected ... Germany I'd argue that the reason is different, namely that big organisations such as trade unions and (the german version of) pension funds have traditionally provided rental homes at large scale, which kept supply and demand in check. Cf sozialer Wohnungsbau [1]. [1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sozialer_Wohnungsbau https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sozialer_Wohnungsbau