Many politicians now realise there could be political mileage in building more houses
sense of why London has such expensive housing, visit Tottenham Hale. You might expect that, next to an Underground station where central London is accessible within 15 minutes, there would be plenty of houses. In fact, there is a car wash. The land on which the car wash sits is officially classified as “green belt” land, which means that building houses on it is almost impossible.
It is a similar story in America. The part of the country with the most elastic housing supply, Pine Bluff, a midsized city in Arkansas, has an average house price of $90,000. The cost of a house in one of the most restrictive parts, San Luis Obispo in California, is $725,000, even though building costs across America do not vary much. Common land-use regulations across America include zoning rules which allow only single-family houses and prevent the construction of apartments .
In fact, both causes are important. The loosening in global financial conditions since 2000 has certainly pushed up house prices—as have low unemployment, high immigration and the rise of platforms such as Airbnb, which divert home ownership away from ordinary people. Prices have not risen because building has suddenly became vastly more difficult.
Autocratic planning systems do a better job of boosting housing supply. Russia has raised its annual rate of housebuilding from 400,000 a year in the early 2000s to over 1m. Singaporeans who protest against development are routinely ignored, says one with a house located near Tengah forest, some of which will soon be razed to make way for apartment blocks.
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