Talking Housing with David Pakman
David Pakman is huge — and he’s very good on housing. Here’s our thrilling short conversation on Build, Baby, Build.
Discussion about this post
No posts
© 2024 Bryan Caplan
Substack is the home for great culture
David Pakman is huge — and he’s very good on housing. Here’s our thrilling short conversation on Build, Baby, Build.
No posts
I checked the comments section on the video, and to my disappointment, but not surprise, they are mostly filled with anti-market bias of various kinds.
Much of the news about apartments in Australia is about the dodgy construction standards even with all the regulation. Every single person I know who has bought in an apartment complex, except 1 to date, has told me that there are so many problems with their 'product' that they wish they never purchased it. The companies building them disappear into the 'entered receivership' abyss usually and are not around to fix anything. It is hard to imagine a deregulated apartment market in Australia producing anything other than garbled vomit on the shores of our coastal mega cities.
The market for housing is unlike other markets for a lot of reasons including the certainty involved in purchasing things like apartments. You don't buy these things off the shelf and even if you wanted to fix it yourself you cannot fix an apartment complex like you might be able to fix a single family house or smaller scale construction. I think we need to consider the ways these markets are not like other markets in more ways than this discussion does.