Berlin Freezes Rents for 5 Years in a Bid to Slow Gentrification

[Jason]

dumb

[CitizenVectron]

Doing this is better than doing nothing. But it's also not the right move. The better decision would be to open up the entire city to dense development in an effort to lower prices. The government could even subsidize development through incentives the denser it becomes. Making a 50-unit building, get X subsidy. Make it 60-unit, get X+5 subsidy, etc.

[AbsolutSurgen]

Freezing rent has some of the worst unintended consequences, that just makes the problem worse in the future.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Build baby build

[Guest]

3 hours ago, CitizenVectron said:

Doing this is better than doing nothing. But it's also not the right move. The better decision would be to open up the entire city to dense development in an effort to lower prices. The government could even subsidize development through incentives the denser it becomes. Making a 50-unit building, get X subsidy. Make it 60-unit, get X+5 subsidy, etc.

There are good arguments that it’s way worse than doing nothing. It relieves the immediate pressure to build, the actual solution to rising housing costs, which further depresses the motivation to develop. 

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

This being Europe, the state could build the housing

[Remarkableriots]

On 2/1/2020 at 11:28 AM, CitizenVectron said:

Doing this is better than doing nothing. But it's also not the right move. The better decision would be to open up the entire city to dense development in an effort to lower prices. The government could even subsidize development through incentives the denser it becomes. Making a 50-unit building, get X subsidy. Make it 60-unit, get X+5 subsidy, etc.

They're trying that here in Reno and so far it hasn't helped. We have been crippled by a shortage of affordable housing crises.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

On 2/1/2020 at 5:33 PM, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

Build baby build

To follow up on this, this specifically means build in wealthy (or "good" whatever that means in your particular city) areas first and foremost. Not doing so will cause gentrification in areas with residents most unable to cope with the influx of new residents/increase in property values

[Uaarkson]

Cities grappling with gentrification need to allow their neighborhoods to develop to the next incremental level of intensity city-wide, in every neighborhood.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

Without a particular emphasis on developing wealthy areas that can resist new building even with by right development, you still effectively only can build in areas where there is not as much community wealth to fight changing the status quo. Where the homes are built is just as important as how many are built in combating gentrification

[Remarkableriots]

Seems like they're replacing a lot of the low income housing here with high end apartments or housing.

[TwinIon]

My first instinct is that this is a really dumb move that will have some dramatic unintended consequences. Still, reading just how bad it's getting indicates that some kind of drastic steps were needed. The Times references a study from 2017 that showed Berlin as having the largest year over year jump in rental prices worldwide, going up 20.5% from Q4 2016 to Q4 2017. Compare that to the 9.3% rise in San Francisco (the top US city on the list). They mention that 60k new residences will be constructed, but also note that the population has grown by 250k from 2012 - 2017. So their building rate can't keep up with their population growth, and now they're going to implement something likely to prevent more construction.

 

 

In similar news, CA just killed off SB 50, a bill that's been circulating for a while that would have opened up density restrictions state wide. Failed by 3 votes.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

6 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

My first instinct is that this is a really dumb move that will have some dramatic unintended consequences. Still, reading just how bad it's getting indicates that some kind of drastic steps were needed. The Times references a study from 2017 that showed Berlin as having the largest year over year jump in rental prices worldwide, going up 20.5% from Q4 2016 to Q4 2017. Compare that to the 9.3% rise in San Francisco (the top US city on the list). They mention that 60k new residences will be constructed, but also note that the population has grown by 250k from 2012 - 2017. So their building rate can't keep up with their population growth, and now they're going to implement something likely to prevent more construction.

 

 

In similar news, CA just killed off SB 50, a bill that's been circulating for a while that would have opened up density restrictions state wide. Failed by 3 votes.

Ugh