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Why developers seem to only build luxury housing (2018)

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Re: Why developers seem to only build luxury housing (2018)

#101

Post by gernb »

ghaff wrote: post #74
routerl wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Car-centric living is absolutely not quality-of-life focused...

Are you suggesting that a pleasant rural/exurban environment, perhaps within a reasonable driving distance of an urban downtown is not quality of life focused? It may not be your preference but it is for many people. Others even like suburbs though that's mostly not my thing.

That's fine if people want to live in the suburbs but... They need to start paying the full amount of what it costs to maintain those suburbs. As it is, the dense urban downtown is subsidizing all of it. That's not fair.

https://youtu.be/7Nw6qyyrTeI

Re: Why developers seem to only build luxury housing (2018)

#102

Post by actionablefiber »

nopenopenopeno wrote: post #96
actionablefiber wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public transportation is one piece of the puzzle. Cities that are truly great for car-free living are also walkable and cyclable, and have dedicated infrastructure to this end. Public transit gets you part-way there, since unlike cars, public transit, even buses, do not really make the streets dangerous and hostile the way that individual transport vehicles do. Still, it's important to remember that public transit is…

It’s the politically difficult, or more often politically impossible, part of the puzzle.

Oh, completely.

There's a whole host of problems strongly linked to American car-dependent development for which the solutions already exist and have been in use for some time elsewhere. Air quality, street congestion, traffic fatalities, obesity, high cost-of-living, poor accessibility for the disabled, children growing up with little independence or hobbies outside the home, housing shortage, and the general unhappiness of people who have no choice but to drive everywhere to do anything in a congested suburban town.

The obstacles are not technological and have not been for some time. It's fully a social and political problem.

Re: Why developers seem to only build luxury housing (2018)

#103

Post by lupire »

ghaff wrote: post #74
routerl wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Car-centric living is absolutely not quality-of-life focused...

Are you suggesting that a pleasant rural/exurban environment, perhaps within a reasonable driving distance of an urban downtown is not quality of life focused? It may not be your preference but it is for many people. Others even like suburbs though that's mostly not my thing.

Banning non-car homes isn't quality of life focused.

Re: Why developers seem to only build luxury housing (2018)

#104

Post by lupire »

CountSessine wrote: post #82
ethbr0 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends where you live. That's a broad assertion to cover a wildly divergent spectrum of community types.

Community types enforced by rigid laws outlawing market alternatives. If your “quality of life” is so compelling, why do you need to outlaw everything else, comrade? “Tear down this wall, Mr Gorbachev”

Your last 1.5 sentences discredit your first two paragraphs.

Re: Why developers seem to only build luxury housing (2018)

#105

Post by leetcrew »

eptcyka wrote: post #38
zbrozek wrote: post #23

Let's say I'm a developer and there's unmet demand at all price points. Obviously I build the highest-margin product until I've satisfied that demand. Then I move on to the second-highest-margin product until I've satisfied that demand. Anywhere that demand across the spectrum dramatically outstrips production capacity (e.g., anywhere in the Bay Area, where NIMBYism has made it nigh-impossible to build anything) what…

It'd be perfectly reasonable to mandate that for one high value luxury house, a developer has to build a certain number of affordable homes. I guess it'd be the nimbys that would try and prohibit such legislation.

maybe I'm missing the big picture here, but I don't see why it's actually desirable to have a wide range of incomes within a specific neighborhood. poor people can't afford to shop at {expensive grocery store} or dine at {fancy restaurant}. and wealthy people generally don't want to shop or eat at the places their poor neighbors could afford. if you "urban plan" them into the same neighborhood, now you need two (or more) tiers of every type of business to serve all the residents. at best, everyone has fewer suitable choices of each. at worst (and more realistically imo), most of the businesses continue to serve the wealthier residents, and the less wealthy need to travel away from their "affordable home" to actually get their needs met.

Re: Why developers seem to only build luxury housing (2018)

#106

Post by [deleted] »

chrisseaton wrote: post #12
CalRobert wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't fathom the logic behind the idea that we'll get people to build brand new housing to a high spec and sell it for less than existing, very expensive housing. Every time anyone builds stuff near me there's cries of "BUT IT'S NOT AFFORDABLE!!!" and I just think... duh? New cars are expensive too, which is why you buy a used one....

But older houses are better (nicer architecture, better materials, more space, more mature trees) than newer houses.

[deleted]

Re: Why developers seem to only build luxury housing (2018)

#107

Post by sofixa »

coryrc wrote: post #72
lol768 wrote: post #37

Points #3 and #4 seem to be arguing that regulation is the problem here. In the UK, developers aren't allowed to build a new development (of >5 [some areas] or >10 dwellings [everywhere]) without providing sufficient affordable housing. This is usually a mixture of shared ownership properties and affordable rent properties (which must be no more than 80% of market rent, incl charges) which must be built alongside the…

The UK is well known for unaffordable, poor-quality housing. I'm not sure why you're holding it up as a good example.

London is well known for unaffordable housing, is the UK as a whole? As for the quality, same as in France and other countries with similar profiles, old housing is of ( comparatively for today) poor quality, but it's getting progressively upgraded and replaced.

Having lived in neither, going off reports I'll take the UK, even with Grenfell, than the US(where the Florida collapse compensates for Grenfell).

Re: Why developers seem to only build luxury housing (2018)

#108

Post by CalRobert »

chrisseaton wrote: post #12
CalRobert wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't fathom the logic behind the idea that we'll get people to build brand new housing to a high spec and sell it for less than existing, very expensive housing. Every time anyone builds stuff near me there's cries of "BUT IT'S NOT AFFORDABLE!!!" and I just think... duh? New cars are expensive too, which is why you buy a used one....

But older houses are better (nicer architecture, better materials, more space, more mature trees) than newer houses.

I meant of equivalent quality - and older houses are, somewhat ironically, often nicer because we've made it illegal to build those nice houses with short setbacks in pleasant little walkable neighbourhoods because of things like parking minimums, density maximums, minimum setbacks, etc.

Also lead and asbestos are no fun. Or thatched roofs, but I admit that's my own very particular concern having bought a 200+ year old house.

Re: Why developers seem to only build luxury housing (2018)

#109

Post by CalRobert »

lozenge wrote: post #69
chrisseaton wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in the UK I don't think most people care about the tech of their house (air conditioning, certainly not network cabling) like this.

Air conditioning is going to hugely increase in popularity here in the UK. I think people like the tech, including better heating and sound and heat insulation and FTTP, but it's balanced out by the poor reputation of new builds in terms of quality issues.

The increased popularity of heat pumps should mean more aircon, but bafflingly houses in the UK and Ireland are still going with radiators instead of wall split units.

Re: Why developers seem to only build luxury housing (2018)

#110

Post by CalRobert »

acover wrote: post #7
CalRobert wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't fathom the logic behind the idea that we'll get people to build brand new housing to a high spec and sell it for less than existing, very expensive housing. Every time anyone builds stuff near me there's cries of "BUT IT'S NOT AFFORDABLE!!!" and I just think... duh? New cars are expensive too, which is why you buy a used one....

Toyota makes a new camry as well as a new lexus.

Right... and new camrys are more expensive than used Camrys...
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