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Does anyone know how much of such construction is re-construction, and how much new stock? I have heard (but am not sure) that the pattern is more to buy some
by iguy 7y ago
Does anyone know how much of such construction is re-construction, and how much new stock?
I have heard (but am not sure) that the pattern is more to buy some land, knock down the previous guy's house, and build your own. On a time-scale of 20-30 years, closer to how Americans regard cars (e.g. having to buy used cars is undesirable) than how they regard houses (once built they stay in use forever, although renovated).
- alistairSH 7y agoA fair chunk of that rebuilding is due to more relaxed zoning which is additive instead of single-purpose. In the US, zones tend to be "single family home", "apartments", "town homes", "commercial", "retail". No overlap and the housing variants don't allow increased density without re-zoning, which is expensive. In Japan, zones are more like a maximum usage. "homes", "homes+retail", "home+retail+commercial", etc. The housing zones are less restrictive - typically single family, duplex, and low-rise apartments are all allowed in the basic residential zone. High-rise would be in a different zone, along with retail, commercial, etc.
- iguy 7y agoThanks, yes I'd heard it was more mixed. If you had to guess the proportion of construction which was new floor area (not just building 3 stories, but replacing a 1-story thing, etc.) would this be 10%, 50%, 90%? (I would blindly guess 90% for the US.)