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A comment on Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Housing Crisis. Parent comment

Re:Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Hou... by motorest on Saturday February 22, 2025 @01:45PM (#43141772)
> Europe will do everything, except build more housing supply, to lower rents.

I recommend you open Google maps, google Barcelona, and look at it. The whole city is a dense urban area, surrounded by steep hills. The whole city is covered with >6 story apartment blocks. This isn't the US, where you need to drive 8h to the nearest town.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Hou... by MysticFear on Saturday February 22, 2025 @03:12PM (#43142719)
I recommend you looking into this new tech called steel. It allows you to build vertically extremely tall buildings.
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Re:Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Hou... by rad_gruchalski on Saturday February 22, 2025 @04:12PM (#43143277)
And turn beautiful historical cities into American downtown copies?
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Re:Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Hou... by J_Shelby_J on Saturday February 22, 2025 @04:49PM (#43143618)
Woah, I wish and dream of a city in America with a higher population density than Barcelona!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Hou... by rad_gruchalski on Saturday February 22, 2025 @04:59PM (#43143703)
We dream about and wish for different things.
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Re:Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Hou... by profeatur on Saturday February 22, 2025 @05:00PM (#43143717)
Someone hasn’t seen what Spanish cities look like outside the casco viejo…
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Re:Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Hou... by lentil_soup on Saturday February 22, 2025 @05:13PM (#43143811)
Not the case of Barcelona, though. The areas surrounding the old town are specially beautiful
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Re:Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Hou... by rad_gruchalski on Saturday February 22, 2025 @05:46PM (#43144067)
And skyscrapers are going to make it somehow better?
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Re:Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Hou... by dumbledoren on Sunday February 23, 2025 @12:43AM (#43146972)
Yes. Because apparently, Europe has to meet the bloated housing demand that is being caused by American and foreign investors so that they can arbitrage and make $$$ by gentrifying the locals...
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Re:Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Hou... by lentil_soup on Saturday February 22, 2025 @05:11PM (#43143788)
Barcelona is one of the densest cities in Europe, probably THE densest if you include L'Hospitalet. It would rank top 5 in density when compared to any US city
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Re:Why Barcelona Bought the Building That Symbolizes Its Hou... by kasey_junk on Saturday February 22, 2025 @05:32PM (#43143953)
But it’s trending down (fairly dramatically) over time.

I couldn’t find stats quickly for Barcelona but in other places the amount of space per person takes up in housing has gone way up. People now simply won’t accept housing conditions that were normal in the past.

If more housing doesn’t get built but each person demands more space faster than the population declines the outcome seems obvious.

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