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At least in London, this has been a problem for 20-30 years. For most young people, buying a house is becoming an impossibility. Supply is increasing, but slow
by agd 5y ago
At least in London, this has been a problem for 20-30 years. For most young people, buying a house is becoming an impossibility.
Supply is increasing, but slowly, and there's a limit on how dense people want to have the city.
Demand side looks like the better area to focus. Reducing population would help significantly, combined with taxes/disincentives on second home ownership and vacant properties.
Unfortunately these policies are unpopular with governing parties because:
a) the politicians own property (and often more than one)
b) older people vote, and they tend to be doing well out of the situation
I see a lot of right wing VC folk on twitter calling for massive derugulation of the housing market to grow supply. However, I think there's a strong case to be made that housing and land are different from other parts of the market. People want green space, they don't want high rise everywhere. You cannot (for the most part) make new land.
So, I agree that this problem won't be solved for 20+ years. Declining population is probably our best bet to improve the situation. And of course, young people will move to cheaper areas, particularly when they start families.
- Leherenn 5y agoI don't think declining population will change much, it's not going to be uniform. The remote villages/cities where all the kids leave as soon as possible will disappear once their ageing population die out. What's left of those villages will keep on migrating to the big cities, potentially even making the problem worse.
- s5300 5y agoI think we’re just going to become mole people tbh. Servants of our above ground geriatric overlords.
- xunn0026 5y agoThis is somewhat funny considering the globe has been locked in house to prevent a virus that is most deadly to the very old.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ianai 5y agoDeclining population is a commonality in the developed world. Regulation pushing investment out of homeownership absolutely is needed. Granted, the population decreases headed after the baby boomer generation starts declining will be interesting at least in the US.
- mmarq 5y ago> At least in London, this has been a problem for 20-30 years. For most young people, buying a house is becoming an impossibility. The real problem is that 70% of what we call London is square kilometres of single family homes, with not even a church within a 5km radius. This creates both scarcity of houses and overcrowding of the few areas worth visiting. A more European zoning system, with 4-5 storey buildings with stores on the ground floor, would greatly improve the lives of many. Now you either live in zones 1-2 (plus some exceptions) or you live in a non-place where the only thing that matters is the tube stop, if there is one.