[marcyb5st]

True if homes are owned by individuals only. Having companies owning loads of real-estate throws a wrench into that (at least where this is common). For instance, in Zürich real new development projects are all owned by companies which almost exclusively rent.

To add salt to the injury, SBB (the federal railway company) entered the real estate market and rents exclusively. It feels like a government sanctioned way to keep people out of the housing market.

[plexman]

I think that one solution is to cut red tape on construction and remove related taxes or rent caps. Create the incentive to construct. Seldom any government does that, on the contrary it looks like they just reduce/remove the incentive to build.

[update] Also the regulation on gear/materials is insanely costly, in Dublin new houses need to have a BER [1] rating of 'A'. Looks great in paper but this severely increases the cost.

[1] https://www.seai.ie/home-energy/building-energy-rating-ber/u...