Hundreds demonstrate against high rents in Zurich

Re:Hundreds demonstrate against high rents in Zurich by thriftwy on Sunday November 05, 2023 @03:00PM (#38155010)

I doubt that the state will be more efficient in building houses than private enterprises can if allowed to do so. If they are not being built and added on marked, the effective price will only crawl up.

In case if Zurich, I imagine that supply is limited due to its geography as well, and of course by wanting to preserve the quality of life.

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Re:Hundreds demonstrate against high rents in Zurich by rando_dfad on Sunday November 05, 2023 @03:12PM (#38155149)

> I doubt that the state will be more efficient in building houses than private enterprises can if allowed to do so

Depends. If the profit is in more expensive housing, than private enterprise will bias towards that and ergo be less efficient at building lower-margin "affordable" housing.

Ideally, in a perfect frictionless economy populated by spherical cows, yes, private enterprise will more efficiently allocate across the entire spectrum of market needs -- so in principle, I'm agreeing with you.

But spherical cows make lousy roommates.

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Re:Hundreds demonstrate against high rents in Zurich by bugglebeetle on Sunday November 05, 2023 @03:01PM (#38155032)

If the Swiss can build train tunnels through mountains on schedule, I’m fairly certain they can build some more apartments in Zurich.

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Re:Hundreds demonstrate against high rents in Zurich by snovv_crash on Sunday November 05, 2023 @03:19PM (#38155221)

Private companies build the train tunnels.

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Re:Hundreds demonstrate against high rents in Zurich by bugglebeetle on Sunday November 05, 2023 @06:00PM (#38156611)

Not really. Most have been built by subsidiaries of Swiss Federal Railways, which is a state-owned enterprise with extra steps.

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