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The housing crisis is universal. There's been growing inability to build in many countries, as the article readily admits. People can't afford homes across the

by leg100 3y ago

The housing crisis is universal. There's been growing inability to build in many countries, as the article readily admits. People can't afford homes across the world: USA, Canada, Australia, even China, where supply isn't a problem per se. The article should then address this global phenomenon rather than conclude it is a "political problem", suggesting it is some kind of peculiar ideology exported out of Britain.

mandmandam 3y ago
That's neoliberalism, baby. You'll see the same pattern with healthcare, water, waste, media, energy, etc; every common good is being scooped up as much as possible by private interests. The ultra-wealthy have a sophisticated playbook for doing this which maximises profit at the expense of the vast majority of the population. It's international. A complicit media owned by the same private interests acts like this is all a big mystery, and any individual or group that gets too effective at making this plain is systematically irrelevanced.
quickthrower2 3y ago
So China has an overbuilding problem, right? To the point of demolishing apartment blocks, etc. How does this marry up? Is it the age old problem of building too much in suburbs people don't want to actually live in? Or the old problem of new build apartments being too expensive for most people, so require a bubble?
- moffkalast 3y ago
  China's problem is two fold afaik: They allowed apartment buildings to be built that aren't up to code or even structurally sound enough to live in and must be demolished because they're completely unsafe, and all of the ones that were up to code were immediately bought up as investments and left empty by real estate speculators. Letting people have homes would kill demand and lower prices of course, can't have that.
  - Grimburger 3y ago
    This is hilariously wrong. Yes in a country of 1 billion people there are dodgy apartments, but then again in my country of 26 million people an estimated 60% of new apartments have flaws, big ones in the middle of Sydney have been deemed unlivable only a few years after being built. China overbuilds entire cities and everyone mocks them for it, but a few years later those cities fill up and people conveniently forget about that. Even the commentator who coined the term Ghost Cities admits they have become functional economic powerhouses. > Reporting in 2018, Shepard noted that "Today, China’s so-called ghost cities that were so prevalently showcased in 2013 and 2014 are no longer global intrigues. They have filled up to the point of being functioning, normal cities" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under-occupied_developments_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under-occupied_developments_in...
dan-robertson 3y ago
Interestingly, I think it’s much worse in English speaking countries than other developed countries. The real estate problems in China are quite different, I think.

by leg100 3y ago

mandmandam 3y ago

That's neoliberalism, baby. You'll see the same pattern with healthcare, water, waste, media, energy, etc; every common good is being scooped up as much as possible by private interests. The ultra-wealthy have a sophisticated playbook for doing this which maximises profit at the expense of the vast majority of the population. It's international. A complicit media owned by the same private interests acts like this is all a big mystery, and any individual or group that gets too effective at making this plain is systematically irrelevanced.

quickthrower2 3y ago

So China has an overbuilding problem, right? To the point of demolishing apartment blocks, etc. How does this marry up? Is it the age old problem of building too much in suburbs people don't want to actually live in? Or the old problem of new build apartments being too expensive for most people, so require a bubble?

moffkalast 3y ago
China's problem is two fold afaik: They allowed apartment buildings to be built that aren't up to code or even structurally sound enough to live in and must be demolished because they're completely unsafe, and all of the ones that were up to code were immediately bought up as investments and left empty by real estate speculators. Letting people have homes would kill demand and lower prices of course, can't have that.
- Grimburger 3y ago
  This is hilariously wrong. Yes in a country of 1 billion people there are dodgy apartments, but then again in my country of 26 million people an estimated 60% of new apartments have flaws, big ones in the middle of Sydney have been deemed unlivable only a few years after being built. China overbuilds entire cities and everyone mocks them for it, but a few years later those cities fill up and people conveniently forget about that. Even the commentator who coined the term Ghost Cities admits they have become functional economic powerhouses. > Reporting in 2018, Shepard noted that "Today, China’s so-called ghost cities that were so prevalently showcased in 2013 and 2014 are no longer global intrigues. They have filled up to the point of being functioning, normal cities" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under-occupied_developments_in_China https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under-occupied_developments_in...

dan-robertson 3y ago

Interestingly, I think it’s much worse in English speaking countries than other developed countries. The real estate problems in China are quite different, I think.