This would make sense if we were running out of land, or if we were anywhere near housing density limits, but we are not. Housing can be created by running utilities and roads to land without it or building higher on land with it.

Markets for a fixed number of goods work fine in general; concert tickets, limited edition shoes, rare antiques. The housing market is heavily absolutely distorted but not because land is a fixed quantity.

"concert tickets, limited edition shoes, rare antiques"

What have you measured to determine that these markets 'work fine'? These are terrible markets, speculation is higher than productivity, fraud is endemic, prices are volatile and liquidity is low. Antiques and arts are infamous for fraud and enabling tax evasion.

People don't need limited edition shoes to survive, so we can just ignore the problem.

> The housing market is heavily absolutely distorted

i still don't understand what these distortions being claimed are. "artificially low" interest rates isn't a distortion - it affects everything, and the rates may not be that low, compared to the growth. As for taxation, real estate isn't treated too differently from any other forms of investment.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is pretty unique to real estate.

Ability of third parties (politicians, bureocracy, NIMBY groups) to block or retard production of new assets. From what i heard from developers, getting permissions for a new appartment complex takes many years, several times longer than actually building the complex.

Inability of third party to capture value they create - an apartment complex in the middle of the forest is worthless.

It needs utilities, shopping centre, major metro line, highway, arts, jobs, good schools, and general 'nice area' vibes created by artists on the verge of bankruptcy. None of those things area created by the construction company.

In fact randomly building houses leads to congestion, lack of places in schools and other facilities, and miserable living conditions.