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It can go both ways. If a developer wants your house for the land you want big. But if you stay as a house and your neighbour becomes the high rise and you cant then you lose out.




That's assuming there would only be one developer building one new building, which isn't really the idea here.

Not the idea but in reality without government initiated land forced sale you need

1. Someone(s) to agree to sell some land

2. Usually several adjacent plots to have enough space to build - get them all to sell

3. Planning permission

4. Zoning (but we assume that is fixed here)

5. Profit in the proposed development

6. The buyer

So a lot is needed. Now game theoretically it may be better to be nimby.

Also some people wont sell they are sentiment motivated.


> Someone(s) to agree to sell some land

If you rezone some area, there are already going to be some number of units on the market to begin with. Then add developers willing to pay more than the current market price because it has become profitable and you get even more.

> Usually several adjacent plots to have enough space to build - get them all to sell

This is by no means necessary. You buy one plot of land, replace a single house with a 5-story condo containing 10-20 units. The whole idea is that you don't need a lot of land but rather taller buildings.

> Planning permission

This is the same premise as zoning.

> Profit in the proposed development

If you can buy a unit for e.g. $500,000 and build 20 units that each sell for $350,000, that's likely to be profitable.

> The buyer

The problem we're trying to solve is the huge amount of unmet demand for housing. If you ran out of buyers the problem is solved.


> If you can buy a unit for e.g. $500,000 and build 20 units that each sell for $350,000, that's likely to be profitable

True, forgetting construction costs and assuming you have a gun to point at the land seller's head to sell cheap.

> This is the same premise as zoning.

No you need to get approval to build the thing. Zoning is one aspect. Necessary but not sufficent.

> This is by no means necessary. You buy one plot of land, replace a single house with a 5-story condo containing 10-20 units. The whole idea is that you don't need a lot of land but rather taller buildings.

Depends. Maybe quarter acre is enough but typical burbs you may have 200-400sqm. Depends what country I guess.

Hard to do this individually. And profitably. That is why in London you see long streets of appartments 5 stories high. Or maybe they were houses but already terraces so easy to convert. It will all depend on the specifics but most often you need to join lots unless fortunate to have a big plot of land or something that only requires repartitioning.

> The problem we're trying to solve is the huge amount of unmet demand for housing. If you ran out of buyers the problem is solved.

I meant buyer of the land. Not the end product.


Neighbours can get together to sell their land together, then you can set minimum prices etc. Of course, it requires only one owner not to join for this to not work, but depending on their location they might experience a lower QoL due to construction and a changed neighbourhood if their neighbours sell.



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