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Tokyo, Vienna, … Most cities aren’t very good at adding enough supply. And sometimes that supply increases agglomeration effects and makes even more people wan
by konschubert 3y ago
Tokyo, Vienna, … Most cities aren’t very good at adding enough supply.
And sometimes that supply increases agglomeration effects and makes even more people want to move there.
Which is a good thing, that’s what cities are for.
- jjav 3y agoTokyo is such a unique special case that I don't think it should be an example for anywhere else. I did not know about Vienna, spent some time reading about it! Seems that it had very expensive rents and government programs to build a lot of public housing cut those rents making it fairly affordable. So it is a good case study of this approach working. Although it seems most of that housing was built a century ago. I have to wonder how practical it would be to replicate that today. > Most cities aren’t very good at adding enough supply. Maybe it's just not that easy? Also, culturally in the US it's just never going to happen that a city owns half or more of all housing as a public service, so I suspect wishing for that is not realistic. So in the US, building housing doesn't happen unless it is profitable for builders.
- konschubert 3y agoThere is nothing wrong with builders making money. Most of the cost of housing in cities comes from the underlying land. And you can make that cheaper overnight by increasing supply through zoning.