archytech

  Skyscraper flats ... are at such a high starting price that they might put a downwards pressure on really expensive flats but do nothing for the average person.

False.

Without new units, the occupants of the (unbuilt) new luxury units would simply be driving out the occupants of other (more affordable) spaces in older units.

Sorry, but that makes no sense.

You set up some weird strawman about skyscrapers, do you have anything to back up your claims?

Housing units, population, jobs, and desirability of the area is what drives housing unit prices. Increasing the supply will always ease affordability.

Restrictions on development, and NIMBYism is what destroys the cost of living and development in cities.

  But these cities still aren't building to the pace of 
  their population growth. To achieve price reductions, 
  these cities would need to implement an open market, 
  deregulating land so that housing supply can meet demand. 
  Assuming that urbanites view this as some crackpot 
  right-wing solution--'Reaganomics', according to one San 
  Francisco politician--they should look at Tokyo, where 
  it's actually being tried.


    In Minato ward — a desirable 20 sq km slice of central 
  Tokyo — the population is up 66 per cent over the past 20 
  years, from 145,000 to 241,000, an increase of about 
  100,000 residents. In the 121 sq km of San Francisco, the 
  population grew by about the same number over 20 years, 
  from 746,000 to 865,000 — a rise of 16 per cent. Yet 
  whereas the price of a home in San Francisco and London   
  has increased 231 per cent and 441 per cent respectively, 
  Minato ward has absorbed its population boom with price 
  rises of just 45 per cent.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/08/12/tokyos-af...