[notatoad]

same as the main thing that stops housing everywhere: the people who already own homes want the value of their own investments to continue rising uncontrollably, and building more houses has the potential to threaten that.

the stated reasons are usually that building more housing outside of existing urban areas is bad for the environment, and building more housing within existing urban areas is bad for the "neighbourhood character". but the reality is just that a housing shortage is good for a lot of people's bank accounts.

[soupbowl]

Strange comment, in my area nobody is against more housing, if you don't plan to MOVE out of the city, your house keeps doubling in price and your taxes go up, you make no money. If you want to buy up into a larger house because you had a kid? The gap between a 2 bed 1 bath house and a 3 bed, 2 bath is too much to justify.

Locals that have been here 20-30 years are selling and moving into remote areas because the only way to use your home equity is to abandon the area. More houses are not built here because our infrastructure has been poorly planned for 40 years. We are also surrounded tightly by mountains and water, every new build is condos to jam in as many people as possible.

[imbiased]

It’s actually possible it’s all those reasons, with some contributing more than others