How cheaper housing can boost productivity
economist.com
How cheaper housing can boost productivity
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Re: How cheaper housing can boost productivity
#2 > One paper published in 2010 found that absenteeism among German workers would be 15-20% lower if they did not commute. If it were somehow possible to scrap commuting altogether, the British economy would see a productivity boost worth £12 billion a year, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a think-tank.
Allowing occasional working from home has the same effects, and require no investment in infrastructure.
> But it is not just housing markets that hold back productivity. According to one study, employment in the Bay Area around San Francisco would be about five times larger than it is but for tight regulation on construction of all types.
I'm not familiar with Bay Area, but in Poland people constantly complain about overregulation of construction, and we have much less restrictive construction law than in western Europe (and it shows - public space in Poland is awful compared to Czech Republic or Germany).
You can have too loose construction law, and the result is a city centre were nobody lives - people just commute to work and back. This results in suburbia, and longer commute times - the direct opposite of the effect they wanted to achieve with the first point in that article.
Re: How cheaper housing can boost productivity
#3> One paper published in 2010 found that absenteeism among German workers would be 15-20% lower if they did not commute. If it were somehow possible to scrap commuting altogether, the British economy would see a productivity boost worth £12 billion a year, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a think-tank. Allowing occasional working from home has the same effects, and require no investment in…
> If it were somehow possible to scrap commuting altogether.
Indeed. If only there were a way that people could do work without travelling to a specific desk in a specific building during specific hours.
Re: How cheaper housing can boost productivity
#4Housing is the #1 money sink in developed economy it consumes by far more money out of people's pockets than anything else. And the banks and the owners of capital are totally okay with this. And as the housing crisis showed, it's in no way a sure bet. It's a gamble just like anything else.
Re: How cheaper housing can boost productivity
#5> One paper published in 2010 found that absenteeism among German workers would be 15-20% lower if they did not commute. If it were somehow possible to scrap commuting altogether, the British economy would see a productivity boost worth £12 billion a year, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a think-tank. Allowing occasional working from home has the same effects, and require no investment in…
> You can have too loose construction law, and the result is a city centre were nobody lives - people just commute to work and back.
It's not that Poland (or any other country) needs more laws. It's a problem of incentives, or lack thereof.
If a construction company has bribed politicians to keep giving them lucrative gigs on other people's money, they will have no incentive to actually do a good job.
If, on the other hand, there were free competition among construction companies, they would all strive to do their best so that they would be awarded more gigs in the future.
It's as simple as "corruption", but that's a misnomer because that's just the system working as intended. What's the point of being a city official if you're not in a position to get bribes one way or another?
With great power comes great.. opportunities for collecting bribes!
Re: How cheaper housing can boost productivity
#6Housing is the #1 money sink in developed economy it consumes by far more money out of people's pockets than anything else. And the banks and the owners of capital are totally okay with this. And as the housing crisis showed, it's in no way a sure bet. It's a gamble just like anything else.
What makes houses in developed countries so expensive? I live in Kazakhstan. I can buy some land near city, it would cost me $5-10k for 100 sq. meters of land. I can build my own house for $40-80k (including materials and workers). It might not be the huge house, but it will be fine to live in.
Is land more expensive in developed countries? Are materials more expensive? Are workers more expensive? (probably all components are more expensive, but I still don't understand where those hundreds of thousands of dollars are coming from, those prices are just insane).
Re: How cheaper housing can boost productivity
#7Housing is the #1 money sink in developed economy it consumes by far more money out of people's pockets than anything else. And the banks and the owners of capital are totally okay with this. And as the housing crisis showed, it's in no way a sure bet. It's a gamble just like anything else.
What makes houses in developed countries so expensive? I live in Kazakhstan. I can buy some land near city, it would cost me $5-10k for 100 sq. meters of land. I can build my own house for $40-80k (including materials and workers). It might not be the huge house, but it will be fine to live in. Is land more expensive in developed countries? Are materials more expensive? Are workers more expensive? (probably all compo…
In Kazakhstan you would have to save for that housing. In developed countries banks loan you the money for the housing. Which essentially means that housing price is determined by how much money people make. The more money people make, the more the people selling the house demand because the banks are willing to loan them that money, based on their ability to pay the amount on their mortgage. So in essence housing always costs a significant portion of whatever you make. That then affects the pricing of land. Labor is also very expensive, at least legal labor. In California you have a lot of illegal Mexicans that you can use for cheap construction, but elsewhere labor to build housing is also very expensive because they expect to be able to function in the economy so they charge a premium for their services, unlike in the third world where construction workers are treated like crap. So to answer your question everything is expensive here and the cost is determined by how much money people make rather than some other value.
Re: How cheaper housing can boost productivity
#8> One paper published in 2010 found that absenteeism among German workers would be 15-20% lower if they did not commute. If it were somehow possible to scrap commuting altogether, the British economy would see a productivity boost worth £12 billion a year, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a think-tank. Allowing occasional working from home has the same effects, and require no investment in…
> If it were somehow possible to scrap commuting altogether. Indeed. If only there were a way that people could do work without travelling to a specific desk in a specific building during specific hours.
This sentence jumped out at me too. Of course, not all jobs are amenable to remote work, but many are. However, it will take a long time to change the expectations of managers and coworkers to reflect this new reality.
Re: How cheaper housing can boost productivity
#9Housing is the #1 money sink in developed economy it consumes by far more money out of people's pockets than anything else. And the banks and the owners of capital are totally okay with this. And as the housing crisis showed, it's in no way a sure bet. It's a gamble just like anything else.
What makes houses in developed countries so expensive? I live in Kazakhstan. I can buy some land near city, it would cost me $5-10k for 100 sq. meters of land. I can build my own house for $40-80k (including materials and workers). It might not be the huge house, but it will be fine to live in. Is land more expensive in developed countries? Are materials more expensive? Are workers more expensive? (probably all compo…
Supply and demand. Kazakhstan has a population density one hundredth that of the UK.
Re: How cheaper housing can boost productivity
#10Housing is the #1 money sink in developed economy it consumes by far more money out of people's pockets than anything else. And the banks and the owners of capital are totally okay with this. And as the housing crisis showed, it's in no way a sure bet. It's a gamble just like anything else.
What makes houses in developed countries so expensive? I live in Kazakhstan. I can buy some land near city, it would cost me $5-10k for 100 sq. meters of land. I can build my own house for $40-80k (including materials and workers). It might not be the huge house, but it will be fine to live in. Is land more expensive in developed countries? Are materials more expensive? Are workers more expensive? (probably all compo…
Land with planning permission, in desireable areas, is very expensive. Random example from near me: http://www.plotfinder.net/plot/land-sale-city-edinburgh-situ... - that's just over $100k.
More stringent building regulations probably add to the cost, but the planning system is the big factor. "Desireable area" makes a difference in some cases: a while ago Stoke-on-Trent were selling derelict houses at £1 to anyone who promised to renovate and live in them.