Various issues are believed to affect housing affordability, although the exact effects are subject to debate:

  • Land release. When more land is made available for land, this increases supply. However, meeting demand in this way adds to urban sprawl and makes transport more difficult. Limiting land release, according libertarian/conservative commentator W, is a major contributor to housing becoming unaffordable,[verification needed] and this is quite logical. If land release is limited for reasons of sustainability and conserving the local environment, it is even more critical to deal very strongly with other factors affecting affordability.
  • Housing density. Higher density housing uses less land per residence (or per resident), which should reduce cost substantially. In theory, higher density housing can be cheaper, and allow for cheaper provision of services and public transport. Higher density housing in the form of apartments and terrace housing also has the potential to have lower heating and cooling requirements, if properly designed (an advantage for both affordability and sustainability). Local regulations often prevent this however, through, for example density caps, height limits, W and requirements for housing setback. These may have come about due to legitimate concerns, but could arguably be solved in other ways with less restriction on density, thus less restriction on housing supply, and potentially/theoretically lower housing costs. As some of these regulations are often met through landscaping, they do not actually increase the proportion of usable open space.
  • Local pressure groups often defend these regulations. There is a problem of differing interests, in that existing residents already own houses and thus do not feel the pressure of housing affordability. Sometimes arguments are made that young people should buy houses on the fringes; however this is a serious restriction to people's freedom. in is In contrast, they may wish to avoid change and the risk of negative change, and to maintain or increase their housing prices.

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Pages in category "Housing affordability"

The following 5 pages are in this category, out of 5 total.

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