4 ms·

Hmmmm. IMHO a very peculiar take on the matter, it is the first time that I read that Tokyio has affordable housing (or maybe it has if compared to New York, o

by jaclaz 4y ago

Hmmmm. IMHO a very peculiar take on the matter, it is the first time that I read that Tokyio has affordable housing (or maybe it has if compared to New York, or London, but these are - as I see it - outliers when it comes to prices). In any case attributing the difference entirely to the zoning laws seems to me baseless and definitely an oversimplification. Generally speaking zoning laws can make a substantial difference in house prices where they are simple AND there is land available, but where very little land is available?

midoridensha 4y ago
There's plenty of land in Tokyo, it's just all used for something, not sitting empty, which I would think is the case for any normal city. The zoning laws means that land can be reused, at any time, for housing if some company thinks it's more profitable to build a housing building there than a warehouse or a store. Restrictive zoning means only a portion of the land can be used for housing, and can never be turned into housing as land becomes more valuable. The amount of land is irrelevant. Go back and look at the article, in particular the picture of the NYC zoning map. Only certain portions of the total land is actually usable as housing. In Tokyo, this just isn't the case: almost all of it is. You can't tear down an old warehouse in NYC and build a condo tower there, at least not without a lot of political difficulty. In Tokyo, it's pretty trivial.
- jaclaz 4y ago
  Look, "available land" means "land that is not used". It is clear that more flexible zoning laws allows for easier re-use, if there are abandoned old warehouses and other limitations (height of buildings) do not exist, then this may contribute to more availability and lower prices, but you need many, many converted old warehouses to make a dent in availability, and not necessarily large availability drives prices down. Differences in zoning laws have a relatively high impact in places where there is plenty of available, unused, land.
hgfdhgdfhgf 4y ago
Their argument is not baseless at all. Zoning laws ban the building of new homes in certain zones. Zones which do allow housing in America are height restricted and area restricted. Tokyo allows house building homes in every zone but two. This includes building homes on top of existing buildings where "very little land is available".

by jaclaz 4y ago

midoridensha 4y ago

There's plenty of land in Tokyo, it's just all used for something, not sitting empty, which I would think is the case for any normal city. The zoning laws means that land can be reused, at any time, for housing if some company thinks it's more profitable to build a housing building there than a warehouse or a store. Restrictive zoning means only a portion of the land can be used for housing, and can never be turned into housing as land becomes more valuable. The amount of land is irrelevant. Go back and look at the article, in particular the picture of the NYC zoning map. Only certain portions of the total land is actually usable as housing. In Tokyo, this just isn't the case: almost all of it is. You can't tear down an old warehouse in NYC and build a condo tower there, at least not without a lot of political difficulty. In Tokyo, it's pretty trivial.

jaclaz 4y ago
Look, "available land" means "land that is not used". It is clear that more flexible zoning laws allows for easier re-use, if there are abandoned old warehouses and other limitations (height of buildings) do not exist, then this may contribute to more availability and lower prices, but you need many, many converted old warehouses to make a dent in availability, and not necessarily large availability drives prices down. Differences in zoning laws have a relatively high impact in places where there is plenty of available, unused, land.

hgfdhgdfhgf 4y ago

Their argument is not baseless at all. Zoning laws ban the building of new homes in certain zones. Zones which do allow housing in America are height restricted and area restricted. Tokyo allows house building homes in every zone but two. This includes building homes on top of existing buildings where "very little land is available".