Sure, some property owners will luck out in the way you're describing. Their lot will be bought out to develop a high-rise. But it's just as likely that the lo

Sure, some property owners will luck out in the way you're describing. Their lot will be bought out to develop a high-rise. But it's just as likely that the lot next to them will be bought for development, and theirs will be passed over for the foreseeable future, or that the only reason anyone lives in their suburb is because of unreasonable prices where people actually want to live. Now their property value will plateau or fall as demand for housing falls due to new development happening elsewhere. In the long term it's likely that everyone involved will win, but many property owners just have a 10-20 year horizon before they'd like to sell, and might correctly foresee that a deregulated zoning policy might lead to a growth slump in that time frame if the supply doesn't continue to be artificially restricted.