Calling what is essentially Kanaleneiland "near the middle of Utrecht" is pretty disingenuous. There's not a whole lot of room to go further south without endin

Calling what is essentially Kanaleneiland "near the middle of Utrecht" is pretty disingenuous. There's not a whole lot of room to go further south without ending up in Nieuwegein. That aside, the costs of initiatives like these will be enormous. They need to be financed with (or so projectmanagers tell me) those "XL penthouse" apartments and other larger offerings. There are basically no takers for that, not in the least because they'll be significantly north of 1 million euros. Even the affordable housing is generally pricy (think 350000+) and anything in those price ranges will be in the absolute minority. If there is anything at all around 300000, it will be specifically for a so-called "middle income bracket". This is a very hard to attain bracket unless you are a two-person family with a relatively high but not very high income. For average incomes this bar is very hard to clear. All that to say, it is clearly not made for most people in the country. Aspirational neighbourhoods meant only for rich people are available in many countries (as a specific enclave). It's part of what you pay for in such a location.