> We can only redevelop a block or two at a time, so the only choice is for 10+ story towers. Especially because land is so expensive in these cities. That's n

> We can only redevelop a block or two at a time, so the only choice is for 10+ story towers. Especially because land is so expensive in these cities. That's not necessarily true: it's much easier to build a duplexes/triplexes than a high-rise. Companies that can build the former cannot necessarily build the latter. IIRC when Bloomberg downzoned many "missing middle" outer-borough neighborhoods and upzoned core areas to support high-rises in NYC, many small building companies couldn't transition and just folded. > I'm curious if new residential buildings (non-luxury if that even exists) in Paris or Barcelona are only 5-6 stories high. I'm curious to see actual data on this, but many (most? almost all?) European cities have zoning rules that prevent building much taller than that in residential areas. It's especially true near the city center, where the restriction may apply to all buildings. So my guess would be it's still pretty common to not build high-rises in European cities -- similar to many NYC neighborhoods outside Manhattan (that weren't downzoned by Bloomberg).