4 ms·
So it sounds like people that study and work in those cities buy houses and live in them. Wouldn't it be good city planning to permit the construction of enoug
by cheriot 7y ago
So it sounds like people that study and work in those cities buy houses and live in them. Wouldn't it be good city planning to permit the construction of enough homes for everyone that studies and works in the area? Housing is only a zero sum game when there's not enough of them.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoThey might buy them but they don’t necessarily use them. A lot of the housing stock in Vancouver is vacant even if purchased, screwing up the neighborhood economy greatly.
- trevelyan 7y agoIt would indeed be excellent city planning to do what you are suggesting. Other ideas include taxing vacant properties; restricting immigrants to ownership of a single property for N years; taxing immigration more heavily and investing in municipal infrastructure; or following Australia's lead and restricting non-residents to the purchase of newly-built housing. And it's an great question why so many cities fail to take these steps. My guess is that inertia wins partly because it becomes politically inexpedient to blame immigrants for anything once cities have a certain percent of non-native residents, and partly because rising home prices make older homeowners happy while pushing the marginalized and disaffected younger voters into other ridings.
- skunkpocalypse 7y agoUnfortunately city planners are appointed by officials who are elected by the CURRENT residents, not the potential future residents. Preventing adequate construction is in the financial interest of current homeowners -- it inflates their property values due to artificial scarcity. This won't change as long as city planners answer to those elected by existing residents.