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Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse

architectsjournal.co.uk

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Re: Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse

#41

Post by mschuster91 »

oytis wrote: post #14
whatever1 wrote: post #5

We had a chance to defuse the housing crisis with remote work and we blew it. Opportunities are concentrated and building in concentrated areas is inherently hard. We still don’t know how to scale mega cities fast while still operating them at capacity. So the problem will not go away anytime soon.

High density is supposed to be good isn't it? And density of European cities is still nowhere near what people have in East Asia

> And density of European cities is still nowhere near what people have in East Asia

And thankfully, because of that our suicide rates are lower than in East Asia.

People aren't chicken and hell even poultry will show signs of aggression, depression and other mental health conditions when cramped in too tight conditions.

Re: Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse

#42

Post by whatever1 »

oytis wrote: post #14
whatever1 wrote: post #5

We had a chance to defuse the housing crisis with remote work and we blew it. Opportunities are concentrated and building in concentrated areas is inherently hard. We still don’t know how to scale mega cities fast while still operating them at capacity. So the problem will not go away anytime soon.

High density is supposed to be good isn't it? And density of European cities is still nowhere near what people have in East Asia

Density itself is good for infrastructure, but empirically it seems that we cannot exceed some level. Singapore or Hong Kong for example desperately need more density but it seems impossible to do so.

Then there is the question of wasted resources. We spent all of these resources to build up Detroit. Now what?

Re: Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse

#43

Post by budududuroiu »

daedrdev wrote: post #15
nly wrote: post #6

Over the last 50-70 years the UK made the choice to stop building social housing and to sell off the existing stock with aggressive government subsidies. Complaining now is a bit like complaining there's no milk after you sold the dairy farm to build a casino. I read TFA but I'm not seeing anything but useless outrage that would have been better placed 20-30 years ago I became a first time property owner at 36 and it…

Its not even that, the restrictions on new homes in the UK make it impossible to build any significant amount of housing, social or not.

Not fully, but a sizeable part of this problem is due to NIMBY-ism and power that local councillors have

Re: Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse

#44

Post by mrspuratic »

iamacyborg wrote: post #30
forgotusername6 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of the cheap blocks of government made apartments in the UK are now being torn down. Without regular maintenance and updating, cheap housing can quickly become ugly ghettos. It isn't enough to just build houses. They need to be initially desirable and continually maintained to remain desirable.

Even if they are built, the entire insurance system post-Grenfell is causing absolutely insane service charges for residents. Mine are up >50% since 2018, that’s despite gaining no new services and work on the building being put on hold due to it not being essential. The fact that it’s a relatively new build (about 12 years old) is almost irrelevant as construction is shoddy. Putting new buildings up is only part of…

Double whammy: spray foam attic insulation (aided by goverment grants!) causing sale & mortgage problems.

https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-improvi...

Re: Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse

#45

Post by petesergeant »

graemep wrote: post #31
nly wrote: post #6

Over the last 50-70 years the UK made the choice to stop building social housing and to sell off the existing stock with aggressive government subsidies. Complaining now is a bit like complaining there's no milk after you sold the dairy farm to build a casino. I read TFA but I'm not seeing anything but useless outrage that would have been better placed 20-30 years ago I became a first time property owner at 36 and it…

> If houses ever return to good affordability I'm screwed. Which creates a huge pool of people who are opposed to making houses more affordable.

100%, and it’s not clear there’s any solution to that, because voters will punish anyone who tries to fix it.

Re: Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse

#46

Post by AlexSW »

logicchains wrote: post #29
graemep wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cure worse than the disease. A aging population is economically ruinous.

Compare the growth in GDP per capita in Japan Vs the UK, the UK isn't doing particularly better in spite of all that immigration.

It's not obvious to me that comparing GDP per capita is a fair comparison when talking about one country with immigration vs one without. A lot of the immigration I believe to be not so skilled. But we needed lower-skill jobs filled too.

Re: Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse

#47

Post by dustincoates »

globular-toast wrote: post #27
nly wrote: post #6

Over the last 50-70 years the UK made the choice to stop building social housing and to sell off the existing stock with aggressive government subsidies. Complaining now is a bit like complaining there's no milk after you sold the dairy farm to build a casino. I read TFA but I'm not seeing anything but useless outrage that would have been better placed 20-30 years ago I became a first time property owner at 36 and it…

> If houses ever return to good affordability I'm screwed. Uhh, why? Unless you were planning on selling up and spending it all on a cruise or something house prices are immaterial to home owners. > I have to refinance every 5 years, because that's the game in the UK, so if rates spike I'm also screwed. This is the real problem. It's partly our fault, of course, for agreeing to a mortgage which we couldn't afford if…

> Uhh, why? Unless you were planning on selling up and spending it all on a cruise or something house prices are immaterial to home owners.

I don't know how it is in the UK, but in Paris, I hear from a lot of people that their retirement plan is to sell their Parisian apartment and move to a lower cost area with what they've gained. Doesn't work out if your "investment" is underwater.

Re: Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse

#48

Post by serial_dev »

bwb wrote: post #2

IMO... one of the most important benchmarks for judging the effectiveness of a government is the cost of housing. Cheap and basic housing is so key for economic well-being. I would love to see very basic, small, apartments created by governments on a mass level to try to overcome the current situation. Like persistently have a department of government just building to meet needed demands in economic centers. What oth…

I’d add fertility rate as another powerful metric: when people feel safe, supported, and optimistic, they have kids. So if housing, income stability, healthcare, and trust in the future are in place, you’ll usually see that reflected in birth rates.

All this only makes sense in the context of large groups; at the individual level, many factors determine whether someone has children.

What the puppet masters will tell you though that a country’s fertility rate are declining, because women want careers, the men are incels, and fertility drops due to climate change and microplastics.

Most people I know around my age, either limit the number of children or delay having them because they don’t feel safe bringing a child into this world.

Re: Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse

#49

Post by thrance »

graemep wrote: post #31
nly wrote: post #6

Over the last 50-70 years the UK made the choice to stop building social housing and to sell off the existing stock with aggressive government subsidies. Complaining now is a bit like complaining there's no milk after you sold the dairy farm to build a casino. I read TFA but I'm not seeing anything but useless outrage that would have been better placed 20-30 years ago I became a first time property owner at 36 and it…

> If houses ever return to good affordability I'm screwed. Which creates a huge pool of people who are opposed to making houses more affordable.

This is the thing I never see addressed. Wouldn't fixing the housing crisis necessarily involve slashing down property values? Which are for a lot of people their only form of savings?

Genuine question by the way, I would like an answer.

Re: Waiting 100 years for a home isn't a housing crisis, it's a moral collapse

#50

Post by iamacyborg »

mschuster91 wrote: post #37
iamacyborg wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if they are built, the entire insurance system post-Grenfell is causing absolutely insane service charges for residents. Mine are up >50% since 2018, that’s despite gaining no new services and work on the building being put on hold due to it not being essential. The fact that it’s a relatively new build (about 12 years old) is almost irrelevant as construction is shoddy. Putting new buildings up is only part of…

> Even if they are built, the entire insurance system post-Grenfell is causing absolutely insane service charges for residents. If it's building insurance hikes, for fucks sake it should not be allowed to roll these over to the renters - they have had zero say in shoddy construction, the developers should be the ones held liable.

They should, but they’re not and the government appears unwilling to do anything about it.

Hell, my building recently lost it’s fire safety certificate because one guy decided to scam the system which has caused a ton of knock-on impact for owners looking to move out.

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