> I don't get the "why", but the approach is fairly explicit -- and politicians get reelected while following it, so I guess it's what "the people" want.
Consider every time you have moved into a new place to live. What kind of research did you do and what factors did you consider when prioritizing multiple option down to the final selection?
It's possible you might say (since I don't know you) that you only look at price per square foot and do a sort based on that and take the cheapest option and that's that.
Most people don't do that though. They consider the neighborhood as a whole, nearby facilities, the character of the location (e.g. lots of 24hr pubs or quiet tree-lined street, etc). So the surroundings matter a whole lot to a lot of people. So people don't often want to go through the whole process of researching, selecting a place and moving to it, just to have the whole neighborhood torn down and redone in a different way a few months later. Might be better, but it's still different, so it doesn't check the same boxes they so painstakingly researched before moving.
So when you say you don't get the "why", it's just human nature. A lot of people want to settle into a stable-ish home, where things around it change slowly, not at a hectic pace that makes it seem not-home anymore.
I understand the individual's reason why they don't want a high-rise in their backyard. But having a new development 3km down the road really doesn't affect your home.
But in cities with lower ownership percentage, everybody is feeling the heat when you just cannot afford to move if you're not a top earner because your current flat would cost twice as much since you moved in ten years ago. Rent as a percentage of income steadily rises, 30% was the maximum recommended value, which is now considered good, 50% is now accepted. Germany has relatively low incomes and high taxes, people are clearly feeling it.
Yet still, they re-elect politicians who block large-scale developments in open areas. I've lived in Hamburg, they have plenty of space that can be easily developed and integrated into the public transportation network, but they don't. They wouldn't even need to build it themselves, they'd just need to allow private investors or housing coops to build. But they don't, because ... I don't know. Change is bad? It's too good of a topic to bemoan and win elections with, because people are too simple to see that they've been running the government for 50 of the past 55 years? Landlords paying them off? I don't know.
Consider every time you have moved into a new place to live. What kind of research did you do and what factors did you consider when prioritizing multiple option down to the final selection?
It's possible you might say (since I don't know you) that you only look at price per square foot and do a sort based on that and take the cheapest option and that's that.
Most people don't do that though. They consider the neighborhood as a whole, nearby facilities, the character of the location (e.g. lots of 24hr pubs or quiet tree-lined street, etc). So the surroundings matter a whole lot to a lot of people. So people don't often want to go through the whole process of researching, selecting a place and moving to it, just to have the whole neighborhood torn down and redone in a different way a few months later. Might be better, but it's still different, so it doesn't check the same boxes they so painstakingly researched before moving.
So when you say you don't get the "why", it's just human nature. A lot of people want to settle into a stable-ish home, where things around it change slowly, not at a hectic pace that makes it seem not-home anymore.