Uytae Lee explains how new "luxury housing" frees up older housing
At $2M or more, single-detached houses are the real luxury housing
It seems to be natural to assume that the taller a building is, the more “luxury” it is, and that housing in Vancouver is expensive because there’s too much luxury housing.
In fact it’s basically the reverse, as San Francisco demonstrates: not building newer housing is what drives up prices and rents for older housing.
Charles Montgomery on Twitter:
Are you concerned about luxury housing gentrifying your city? Then you must watch Uytae Lee’s brilliant breakdown of the luxury paradox.
This is a FANTASTIC explainer of why we’re focusing on the wrong ‘luxury housing’. Uytae Lee is such a good housing commentator.
Blocking new housing for being too expensive doesn’t make rich people go away. It just makes them compete with everyone else over existing housing. But the real rich people typically live in detached homes, not condos.
Must watch new video from Vancouver virtuoso Uytae Lee on why building high-density multifamily housing is good for overall affordability even if it's expensive, and why detached houses are the true luxury housing.
I want to say a special thank you to @michael_wiebe for his help with this video. He helped me unpack all the research around this issue and I couldn’t have produced this video without his support and expertise.
60-second version:
A couple screenshots, showing how not building new housing results in gentrification and displacement:
More
Michael Wiebe on how single-family zoning reserves land for the rich
1000 Cypress Street - it’s illegal to replace an old eight-unit, two-storey rental building in Kits Point, built in 1972, with a new apartment building of the same size. Nathan Lauster and Jens von Bergmann describe how Kitsilano was downzoned in the 1970s: “Many of the buildings now housing the current residents of East Kitsilano could not be rebuilt at their present density today.”
San Francisco vs. Austin. In January, San Francisco approved six units of housing; Austin approved 1,248.
Max Dubler: “‘You say San Francisco hasn’t built enough new housing over the past 20 years, but look at these new buildings downtown’ is ‘if global warming is real, why is it snowing outside’ as applied to housing. San Francisco has built one new home for every ~6 new jobs created since 2005.”
Saving this. I’m trying to build a FAQ to save time explaining to people basic facts about housing prices and adjacent issues (supply, gentrification, immigration, congestion…). Useful resource!