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It's not happening everywhere: we don't have this problem in Japan. >Cheap loans inflated the price of housing very fast Interest rates here are 0.5% for prim

It's not happening everywhere: we don't have this problem in Japan. >Cheap loans inflated the price of housing very fast Interest rates here are 0.5% for primary homes. That's not the problem. The problem is a lack of supply. Over here, there's constant new construction, and zoning codes don't prevent new construction or higher density the way they do in other countries. So houses don't appreciate; they depreciate. So people don't use them as "investments"; they're just a place to live. >Corporate landlords are just another facet of this imbalance, they can play around with their stock of vacant homes to keep inflated prices We have corporate landlords here too. High competition and lots of supply keep prices stable.

dehrmann 3y ago
> we don't have this problem in Japan. This backs up that limited supply is a large part of this. Japan's population has been decreasing for 50 years, so ignoring domestic migration trends, it has enough housing. It's also seen deflation for a long time.
- midoridensha 3y ago
  You can't ignore domestic migration trends. Tokyo has been steadily increasing in population (except during the pandemic), as have other major cities. People are leaving the small towns and countryside. In any other place, this would result in hugely increasing prices.
piva00 3y ago
> So houses don't appreciate; they depreciate. So people don't use them as "investments"; they're just a place to live. That's the core aspect for it to work in Japan though, it's a massive cultural difference in how houses are viewed as (and how policies were made) compared to other countries. The cultural difference is what blocks policies to increase supply in other countries, to break the culture of seeing a house as an investment and making current prices drop is exactly the friction point that demands some politicians to commit career suicide if they want to change it. I can only see it happening when the social fabric is close to a breaking point due to unaffordability, before that I don't see how Western countries that have pushed for generations housing as an investment to change course.

dehrmann 3y ago

> we don't have this problem in Japan. This backs up that limited supply is a large part of this. Japan's population has been decreasing for 50 years, so ignoring domestic migration trends, it has enough housing. It's also seen deflation for a long time.

midoridensha 3y ago
You can't ignore domestic migration trends. Tokyo has been steadily increasing in population (except during the pandemic), as have other major cities. People are leaving the small towns and countryside. In any other place, this would result in hugely increasing prices.

piva00 3y ago

> So houses don't appreciate; they depreciate. So people don't use them as "investments"; they're just a place to live. That's the core aspect for it to work in Japan though, it's a massive cultural difference in how houses are viewed as (and how policies were made) compared to other countries. The cultural difference is what blocks policies to increase supply in other countries, to break the culture of seeing a house as an investment and making current prices drop is exactly the friction point that demands some politicians to commit career suicide if they want to change it. I can only see it happening when the social fabric is close to a breaking point due to unaffordability, before that I don't see how Western countries that have pushed for generations housing as an investment to change course.