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Building more all the time will only do one thing, namely to continue to overheat an already ridiculously-overheated housing market
Not sure I buy this though. As far as I'm aware, prices are still fixed by supply and demand. Increase supply and prices will go down. However, I agree that building shitty little hobbit boxes in areas of high demand is not the best way of solving this issue.
Brommers-
Not sure I buy this though. As far as I'm aware, prices are still fixed by supply and demand. Increase supply and prices will go down.
Nope. Yes, in theory, but not with huge foreign interest and investment. Prices will only continue to go up and up. There is an international kleptocracy to make friends with, after all.
However, I agree that building shitty little hobbit boxes in areas of high demand is not the best way of solving this issue.
I would have you know that hobbit holes and houses were generally extremely comfortable, spacious, and well-built. That they are too small for humans is neither here nor there. :)
Oliver Schick
More on the utterly, utterly nonsensical plans being announced, clearly drawn up by people who are completely clueless about planning and are trying to massage targets to make Johnson & co. look good and line his donors' pockets.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/03/up-to-45000-new-homes-to-be-green-lit-ahead-of-planning-shake-up
The constant mantra of 'we need more homes, we need more homes' is simply nonsense. There are enough homes to house everybody as it is, but hundreds of thousands are empty, either for 'buy to leave', because they're in areas where the economy has been eviscerated by decades of rubbish economic policy, because their owners can't afford to renovate them, or because people are sitting on them as second or third 'homes'. Then there are many buildings at risk whose owners have deliberately run them down because they don't care about their conservation value and want to knock them down to build some crap that pays them rent. All of these things could easily be fixed with a non-corrupt political will.
Building more all the time will only do one thing, namely to continue to overheat an already ridiculously-overheated housing market, and will (not even paradoxically) lead to more homelessness as of the housing built, almost none will be social housing, and more people will be priced out of the rush to one of the few 'secure' investments still left in this ravaged and unbalanced economy.