The global housing crisis is driven by persistent supply shortages, restrictive planning laws, and economic policy imbalances. Addressing these challenges requires reforming zoning regulations to allow higher-density construction, streamlining approval processes, and expanding public investment in affordable and social housing. Additionally, tax reforms targeting land speculation and incentives for modern construction methods can help boost overall housing availability, reduce cost burdens for renters and buyers, and stabilize urban property markets.
Restrictive planning and zoning regulations frequently constrain residential development, resulting in chronic housing supply deficits in high-demand areas.
Streamlining bureaucratic approval systems and reducing development delays lowers the overhead costs and timelines for building new residential units.
Expanding direct government investment in social and municipal housing helps ensure long-term affordability for lower- and middle-income demographics.
Implementing land value taxation and reforming property tax structures can disincentivize speculative land holding and encourage efficient development.
Integrating modern methods of construction, such as modular prefabrication, helps mitigate ongoing labor shortages and improves building efficiency.
The Financial Times is a British daily business newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs.
The Financial Times is a British daily broadsheet and digital newspaper globally recognized for its authoritative coverage of business, economics, and international political affairs. Currently owned by the Japanese holding company Nikkei, the FT is easily identified in print by its distinctive salmon-pink paper. It targets an audience of global business leaders, policymakers, and financial professionals, relying heavily on a successful premium digital subscription model.
26 COMMENTS
Rising rents and housing prices are symptoms of the same thing. Housing is classed as an asset, when it is an essential need first and foremost. People can invest in housing when there is surplus but we need different rules for when there is a shortage, developments slow down due to rising costs of building, etc.
Supply v demand. Everyone knows the supply doesn't meet the demand but only talk about increasing the supply not about reducing demand. Population growth in London has increased by over 2 million since 2000.
Just a correction on this video. Irelands TDs are not taking note, they are currently bringing in policies that are making renting more expensive. They are allowing vulture funds to continue their hellbent drive to buy everything! The state doesn’t even tax the vulture funds on the properties they purchase, how in gods name can anyone get a start here
So many comments here talking about "build more social housing" – Islington is 41% social housing and yet one of the most expensive boroughs in the country. Britain has a higher % of social housing than other OECD countries. Social housing is very expensive, makes a complete loss, and represents a wealth transfer from low-income workers who can't get social housing to anyone who is prepared to play the system to get one, and a transfer that isn't sustainable. Why were people so happy to let Thatcher sell them in the 80s? Because councils couldn't afford to maintain them and they had become slums over the decades after the war, their tenants trapped in appalling conditions. Build market housing, prevent non-British citizens from getting social housing, and change the incentives to jump the council house waiting list
What the history of British housing shows since the start of the 20th century is that (apoligies to Prof Linbeck for hijacking his quote on rent controls) the fastest way, short of bombing, to really screw up the British housing market is to involve politicians. If Andy Burnham is to be believed we are about to embark on yet another large scale council house building program by my count that is the 7th since the end of WW1 (you could argue that some of them effectively run together so should be counted as 1 not 2) and with the exception of immediate post WW2 program, which was genuinely cause by bombing, every other program was required because high tax and over regulation meant the private sector, and especially the private rented sector had stopped building and buying new housing stock.
The UK housing shortage has got dramatically worse over the last 20 years for 2 reasons, politicians have simultaenously added more and more regulations on house builders and higher taxes and over regulated landlords who should be a key part of the new build market. A good example from 10 years back (when I was involved in assisting medium to large housing developments) was that a 300 home housing development typically needed 3-5 years and anything from £250,000 to over £500,000 from acquiring an option over the land to actually starting construction. Not because of developers land banking or slow rolling it to maximise the profits, that was the time and cost simply to satisfy all the regulations and local authority conditions to get detailed planning permission. It will not have got better since then.
But even if politicians were to have a change of heart there are further problems. Andy Burnham wants a big house building boom but who is going to build those homes, where are they going to build them, what type of home and what quality of construction. Of those issues the most immediate is who is going to build the homes. It needs a lot of skilled workers, electricians, plumbers, plasterer etc. and we already have a significant shortage of those and a shortage that gets worse every year as those who retire are not being replaced by the same number of new skilled workers. Some of that shortage can be mitigated by changing construction methods with more of the homes being prebuilt in a factory and simply bolted together on site – but that still leaves a big shortage. Then there is the march of technology which makes the shortage worse – every new home should have solar panels and heat pumps installed as part of construction, and of course that requires yet more skilled labour
I like that you talk about housing shortages whilst walking around the Barbican, a project that was supposed to provide affordable post-war housing in the 70s
There is the problem of landowners and property developments building ‘just enough’ properties to sell at a profit instead of at scale, which could leave properties empty so requiring discount’s.
In many European countries the population size is now flat or declining. So it’s unclear to me why these countries cities necessarily need a large amount of new-builds. Why not renovate the existing housing stock rather? In many cities much of the housing stands empty and often in poor condition. Why not address this instead of filling up more space (in the worst case green spaces) with often nondescript and ugly new-builds?
This was helpful, but completely missed out was the following: huge numbers of empty homes, retrofitting, financing of councils for housing and huge numbers of second homes and land banking. These need to be factored in.
NIMBYism in my opinion arises from the lack of infrastructure that comes with increased house building. If the infrastructure could support the additional population, I don’t think it would be as big of an issue. You can’t just build homes without building all the amenities people need along with it (e.g public transport links, roads, schools, water systems etc)
One of the best videos I have seen on the subject. Good work. Would be good to have furniture videos giving more details on the planing issues and videos about the progress or lack of. I hope Burham can get started the biggest council house building program since the 50s as it would help turn things around.
Greed, stop letting the rich buy up the houses to charge crazy rent on the poor, and stop with letting illegals in for votes and giving them homes. Government is very corrupt and only work for the rich.
4:01 " research shows large corporate landlords perform a key role in providing housing for low-income households, when these landlords buy up homes in high-income cities and convert them to rentals this allows people on lowest income to afford to live in cities"
Completely lost me right at this point with this drivel. Use common sense, a corporate landlords only goal is profit at any cost, even to the detriment of human dignity. What you just spouted is nonsensical.
Ever thought of working together with the EU, where 1,3 million of us are homeless? Causes here include economic challenges, housing shortages, and "social exclusion".
It seems the need to ensure housing as a fundamental right is of the essence, even more so if we look at those people who face multiple fundamental human rights infringements, all at the same time.
Orchestrated martyrdom does not only befall our poor non EU migrants -no home, few clothes, no belongings, no paid work, no justice, gangstalking, cyber infringements, slavery, trafficking, grooming and general deprivation.
While Finland, Norway and Denmark all achieve accolades for their housing programs, I am yet to see a coordinated professional and family- independent approach across the Nordics, good old England, the EU and Switzerland.
What if we were to develop our own Marshall plan by requesting Royal Families, Elites, Billionaires and those who own large mansions or houses, to rent out or sell (parts of) their houses?
I would also urge for European refugees, asylum seekers, prisoners of conscience and whistleblowers to be given our own appartment or home immediately upom re-entry.
Build houses in factories. If the UK does that at scale they could lower expense while establishing regulations, and establish new local housing companies in the process.
Rising rents and housing prices are symptoms of the same thing. Housing is classed as an asset, when it is an essential need first and foremost. People can invest in housing when there is surplus but we need different rules for when there is a shortage, developments slow down due to rising costs of building, etc.
Auckland is a basket case
Supply v demand. Everyone knows the supply doesn't meet the demand but only talk about increasing the supply not about reducing demand. Population growth in London has increased by over 2 million since 2000.
We don't have a housing crisis. We have a migration crisis. We need to reverse non White migration to pre 97 then pre WW2 levels.
Just a correction on this video. Irelands TDs are not taking note, they are currently bringing in policies that are making renting more expensive. They are allowing vulture funds to continue their hellbent drive to buy everything! The state doesn’t even tax the vulture funds on the properties they purchase, how in gods name can anyone get a start here
Just remove the unecessary housing regulations lol
"The capped rents cannot cover maintenence" – maintenence of the home or the millionaire/billionaire landlord's desired profit margin?
So many comments here talking about "build more social housing" – Islington is 41% social housing and yet one of the most expensive boroughs in the country. Britain has a higher % of social housing than other OECD countries. Social housing is very expensive, makes a complete loss, and represents a wealth transfer from low-income workers who can't get social housing to anyone who is prepared to play the system to get one, and a transfer that isn't sustainable. Why were people so happy to let Thatcher sell them in the 80s? Because councils couldn't afford to maintain them and they had become slums over the decades after the war, their tenants trapped in appalling conditions. Build market housing, prevent non-British citizens from getting social housing, and change the incentives to jump the council house waiting list
What the history of British housing shows since the start of the 20th century is that (apoligies to Prof Linbeck for hijacking his quote on rent controls) the fastest way, short of bombing, to really screw up the British housing market is to involve politicians. If Andy Burnham is to be believed we are about to embark on yet another large scale council house building program by my count that is the 7th since the end of WW1 (you could argue that some of them effectively run together so should be counted as 1 not 2) and with the exception of immediate post WW2 program, which was genuinely cause by bombing, every other program was required because high tax and over regulation meant the private sector, and especially the private rented sector had stopped building and buying new housing stock.
The UK housing shortage has got dramatically worse over the last 20 years for 2 reasons, politicians have simultaenously added more and more regulations on house builders and higher taxes and over regulated landlords who should be a key part of the new build market. A good example from 10 years back (when I was involved in assisting medium to large housing developments) was that a 300 home housing development typically needed 3-5 years and anything from £250,000 to over £500,000 from acquiring an option over the land to actually starting construction. Not because of developers land banking or slow rolling it to maximise the profits, that was the time and cost simply to satisfy all the regulations and local authority conditions to get detailed planning permission. It will not have got better since then.
But even if politicians were to have a change of heart there are further problems. Andy Burnham wants a big house building boom but who is going to build those homes, where are they going to build them, what type of home and what quality of construction. Of those issues the most immediate is who is going to build the homes. It needs a lot of skilled workers, electricians, plumbers, plasterer etc. and we already have a significant shortage of those and a shortage that gets worse every year as those who retire are not being replaced by the same number of new skilled workers. Some of that shortage can be mitigated by changing construction methods with more of the homes being prebuilt in a factory and simply bolted together on site – but that still leaves a big shortage. Then there is the march of technology which makes the shortage worse – every new home should have solar panels and heat pumps installed as part of construction, and of course that requires yet more skilled labour
I like that you talk about housing shortages whilst walking around the Barbican, a project that was supposed to provide affordable post-war housing in the 70s
There is the problem of landowners and property developments building ‘just enough’ properties to sell at a profit instead of at scale, which could leave properties empty so requiring discount’s.
In many European countries the population size is now flat or declining. So it’s unclear to me why these countries cities necessarily need a large amount of new-builds. Why not renovate the existing housing stock rather? In many cities much of the housing stands empty and often in poor condition. Why not address this instead of filling up more space (in the worst case green spaces) with often nondescript and ugly new-builds?
This was helpful, but completely missed out was the following: huge numbers of empty homes, retrofitting, financing of councils for housing and huge numbers of second homes and land banking. These need to be factored in.
Good video and reporting. But that green screen graphic was awful, too fast and nauseating.
NIMBYism in my opinion arises from the lack of infrastructure that comes with increased house building. If the infrastructure could support the additional population, I don’t think it would be as big of an issue. You can’t just build homes without building all the amenities people need along with it (e.g public transport links, roads, schools, water systems etc)
Get rid of REITs!Micro unit apts.
One of the best videos I have seen on the subject. Good work. Would be good to have furniture videos giving more details on the planing issues and videos about the progress or lack of. I hope Burham can get started the biggest council house building program since the 50s as it would help turn things around.
Greed, stop letting the rich buy up the houses to charge crazy rent on the poor, and stop with letting illegals in for votes and giving them homes. Government is very corrupt and only work for the rich.
4:01 " research shows large corporate landlords perform a key role in providing housing for low-income households, when these landlords buy up homes in high-income cities and convert them to rentals this allows people on lowest income to afford to live in cities"
Completely lost me right at this point with this drivel. Use common sense, a corporate landlords only goal is profit at any cost, even to the detriment of human dignity. What you just spouted is nonsensical.
Thanks!
Ever thought of working together with the EU, where 1,3 million of us are homeless? Causes here include economic challenges, housing shortages, and "social exclusion".
It seems the need to ensure housing as a fundamental right is of the essence, even more so if we look at those people who face multiple fundamental human rights infringements, all at the same time.
Orchestrated martyrdom does not only befall our poor non EU migrants -no home, few clothes, no belongings, no paid work, no justice, gangstalking, cyber infringements, slavery, trafficking, grooming and general deprivation.
While Finland, Norway and Denmark all achieve accolades for their housing programs, I am yet to see a coordinated professional and family- independent approach across the Nordics, good old England, the EU and Switzerland.
What if we were to develop our own Marshall plan by requesting Royal Families, Elites, Billionaires and those who own large mansions or houses, to rent out or sell (parts of) their houses?
I would also urge for European refugees, asylum seekers, prisoners of conscience and whistleblowers to be given our own appartment or home immediately upom re-entry.
A homeless whistleblower who landed in Sweden🎉
Maybe the US government should stop printing cash. So peoples savings don't keep loosing purchasing power every year.
Please if empty props – just a bubble that will burst
Appreciate content, must improve graphic, moving x-ray model made me sick. 🤢
Build houses in factories. If the UK does that at scale they could lower expense while establishing regulations, and establish new local housing companies in the process.
Mass deportations.
Its cleat FT dont fully understand the housing crisis if they its only down to planning regulations