> I’d like to know more about the driving factors - is it purely a matter of cost?
My thesis on this is that people do what they can get away with. If you think you can get away with really low quality stuff, you do that.
Definitely helps to have a housing shortage, where there's probably no other choice anyways. So everything is cheap (since there's no incentive to make a nice place. You're gonna get someone in the apartment anyways!) and so nobody actually knows what "nice" is and just assume it's normal to be able to punch through your door.
My thesis on this is that people do what they can get away with. If you think you can get away with really low quality stuff, you do that.
Definitely helps to have a housing shortage, where there's probably no other choice anyways. So everything is cheap (since there's no incentive to make a nice place. You're gonna get someone in the apartment anyways!) and so nobody actually knows what "nice" is and just assume it's normal to be able to punch through your door.