I wasn't talking about real estate prices. I was literally talking about construction costs. Having just been involved in building a small/medium 3 story + base

I wasn't talking about real estate prices. I was literally talking about construction costs. Having just been involved in building a small/medium 3 story + basement house for over 1 million Euros (we already owned the land), I agree about the bureaucracy driving costs (mostly through mandated actions adding high labor costs), but your other points were irrelevant. Construction prices are crazy when compared to the wood construction often found in the US.