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The whole Anglosphere seems to have issues with housing, in addition to those places you mention. It seems to be a common cultural issue where people gamble on

The whole Anglosphere seems to have issues with housing, in addition to those places you mention. It seems to be a common cultural issue where people gamble on property like crazy. I'm from Ireland, and this is true there (in the desirable urban areas where semi-decent jobs exist), it's true in the UK[1], it's true in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand banned foreigners from buying property[2]. Among Brits, there's a (small) trend of retirees going off and buying a French Chateau and doing it up, because the cost of doing so will be the same or cheaper than buying a very modest place in many urban areas in the UK. This is spurred on by a popular TV show[3] I'm not sure what the answer is. More construction, rent controls and banning foreigners from owning property, none of it seems to really fix the problem. Construction is often too slow, rent controls can put in place conditions for landlords neglecting properties, and banning foreigners will bring other problems too. [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/comments/lvx0xg/property_prices_in_the_uk_are_too_damn_high/ https://old.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/comments/lvx0xg/pro... [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/16/new-zealand-bans-most-foreigners-from-buying-homes.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/16/new-zealand-bans-most-foreig... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_to_the_Chateau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_to_the_Chateau

corty 5y ago
All the western countries go through urbanisation, and have been for the last few decades. Back in the days, industry would build a factory in a smaller country town with a few thousand inhabitants and employ half the population there. Nowadays, this rarely happens anymore, only big cities get any industrial development of larger scales. All the office-based parts of the economy also gravitate towards larger cities (often unnecessarily). So demand for big-city-housing is rising permanently. This wasn't as much of a problem in the last decades. But then, central banks flooded the market with cheap money, making most "safe" investments unviable. Therefore the only "safe" investment left is real-estate which also drives up prices in addition to the increase in demand. And here we are. How do we fix it? Get central banks to stop printing cheap money. No idea how that will work out, because it also has other consequences beside the housing market. And stop urbanisation, make the countryside more viable for industry, commerce, office space. Improve transport around the countryside and suburbs. Curb speculation by promoting home-ownership (for the home you live in, not the 20 you rent out) through tax incentives and other measures (currently, in Germany, you pay lower taxes when renting out a property than when living in the same property, because when renting it out the mortgage payments are "business expenses").
JoeAltmaier 5y ago
This has to change, with the diminishing birth rates. Growth will stop then reverse. Housing maybe become an issue of dealing with empty buildings and abandoned neighborhoods.
- patrickk 5y ago
  Even with declining birth rates, there is still the global urbanisation trend, and the best paid jobs in knowledge sectors tend to cluster together. So while rural areas, and even entire countries (like some of the former USSR states) are emptying out, the cities where the best jobs are will keep rising in importance, and presumably, rental costs unless something drastic changes.

corty 5y ago

All the western countries go through urbanisation, and have been for the last few decades. Back in the days, industry would build a factory in a smaller country town with a few thousand inhabitants and employ half the population there. Nowadays, this rarely happens anymore, only big cities get any industrial development of larger scales. All the office-based parts of the economy also gravitate towards larger cities (often unnecessarily). So demand for big-city-housing is rising permanently. This wasn't as much of a problem in the last decades. But then, central banks flooded the market with cheap money, making most "safe" investments unviable. Therefore the only "safe" investment left is real-estate which also drives up prices in addition to the increase in demand. And here we are. How do we fix it? Get central banks to stop printing cheap money. No idea how that will work out, because it also has other consequences beside the housing market. And stop urbanisation, make the countryside more viable for industry, commerce, office space. Improve transport around the countryside and suburbs. Curb speculation by promoting home-ownership (for the home you live in, not the 20 you rent out) through tax incentives and other measures (currently, in Germany, you pay lower taxes when renting out a property than when living in the same property, because when renting it out the mortgage payments are "business expenses").

JoeAltmaier 5y ago

This has to change, with the diminishing birth rates. Growth will stop then reverse. Housing maybe become an issue of dealing with empty buildings and abandoned neighborhoods.

patrickk 5y ago
Even with declining birth rates, there is still the global urbanisation trend, and the best paid jobs in knowledge sectors tend to cluster together. So while rural areas, and even entire countries (like some of the former USSR states) are emptying out, the cities where the best jobs are will keep rising in importance, and presumably, rental costs unless something drastic changes.