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I’d say the UK (especially London) has a housing pricing crisis more than anything. And I hate how development in London is fracturing communities. If anyone is

I’d say the UK (especially London) has a housing pricing crisis more than anything. And I hate how development in London is fracturing communities. If anyone is onterested: You can concrete over the entire length and breadth of the UK and house prices would still rise: (http://uk.businessinsider.com/societe-generales-albert-edwards-on-the-uk-housing-market-2016-4 http://uk.businessinsider.com/societe-generales-albert-edwar...) Why building more homes will not solve Britain’s housing crisis: (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/27/building-homes-britain-housing-crisis https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/27/buildi...) Why solving the UK housing crisis requires more than new homes:(https://www.ft.com/content/f3143c7e-c56b-11e7-a1d2-6786f39ef675 https://www.ft.com/content/f3143c7e-c56b-11e7-a1d2-6786f39ef...) There is no housing crisis. It would be easier if there were:(https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/02/there-is-no-housing-crisis-it-would-be-easier-if-there-were https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/02/there-is-no-housing-cris...)

lifeisstillgood 7y ago
So I read those (non firewalled) parts that I could and they seem to have different underlying causes - the problem is rampant speculation using dirty foreign money, the problem is loose monetary policy making borrowing too cheap. I think "too much demand" has poor explanatory power and "reduce demand by adding speculation tax for rich people" strikes me as really really hard to implement without poor consequences. The recent Econtalk podcast suggests poor regulation is creating unaffordable supply (ie in manhattan the size of dwellings is fixed (as an anti-slum landlord measure) but it means luxury (is big) apartments are the only profitable ones to build - whereas many people would trade square footage for being near central park. I find that more likely to be a rich seam to mine - the regulation around UK house building is obtuse and abused for years. I mean even on road parking plays a part - I can rent square footage on the road outside a Mayfair property for orders of magnitude cheaper than square footage in the property- that has knock on effects we don't really consider. A holistic view on the drivers of price would be the best first step. I am not sure i have seen it yet
- lifeisstillgood 7y ago
  So Ian Mulheirn (via spectator link) seems well respected ( https://medium.com/@ian.mulheirn/two-housing-crisis-87a843a9d09b https://medium.com/@ian.mulheirn/two-housing-crisis-87a843a9...) Ok - you have to read to the end and then restart to grok it but I kind of get it now - well worth a read and does encompass most of my obvious objections - basically two crises - housing is less affordable on the demand side because inequality, and housing is less affordable on the supply side because financial investor reasons

lifeisstillgood 7y ago

So I read those (non firewalled) parts that I could and they seem to have different underlying causes - the problem is rampant speculation using dirty foreign money, the problem is loose monetary policy making borrowing too cheap. I think "too much demand" has poor explanatory power and "reduce demand by adding speculation tax for rich people" strikes me as really really hard to implement without poor consequences. The recent Econtalk podcast suggests poor regulation is creating unaffordable supply (ie in manhattan the size of dwellings is fixed (as an anti-slum landlord measure) but it means luxury (is big) apartments are the only profitable ones to build - whereas many people would trade square footage for being near central park. I find that more likely to be a rich seam to mine - the regulation around UK house building is obtuse and abused for years. I mean even on road parking plays a part - I can rent square footage on the road outside a Mayfair property for orders of magnitude cheaper than square footage in the property- that has knock on effects we don't really consider. A holistic view on the drivers of price would be the best first step. I am not sure i have seen it yet

lifeisstillgood 7y ago
So Ian Mulheirn (via spectator link) seems well respected ( https://medium.com/@ian.mulheirn/two-housing-crisis-87a843a9d09b https://medium.com/@ian.mulheirn/two-housing-crisis-87a843a9...) Ok - you have to read to the end and then restart to grok it but I kind of get it now - well worth a read and does encompass most of my obvious objections - basically two crises - housing is less affordable on the demand side because inequality, and housing is less affordable on the supply side because financial investor reasons