link to original reddit post by /u/Nikita_Crucis
As I'm looking to move out of my place, I was arguing with someone as to why is the housing price makes it so expensive to rent in the capital. Now the obvious answer is the state is the culprit, but I thought I'd dwell deeper into this. The market for housing is ruled obviously by supply and demand, and these are in my opinion, some but not all the decisive factors that influences this market: connectivity, safety and local infrastructure.
-For the first point, given how pricey cars (taxes and regulations) are and the low wages, most people take the -expensive- bus because we don't have trains or subways (kind of a local protectionism because the municipality is in bed with private bus service and doesn't care about competition). Many people I know, myself included, wouldn't mind living 1 hour away from work if it means we have a safe and reliable way to get in and outside the city.
-Safety: some districts have fancy houses for dirt cheap but these are located in dangerous neighborhoods, and because we don't really have a right to self defense, plus the state refuses to enforce the law accordingly, and this happens in several ways, like the cops not going there, or catching a thief and releasing him the next day. As a result we often discard these options.
-Local infrastructure, in many cases you have to pay taxes and don't have street lights, sewers or even ROADS. Not to mention the lack of other services like police -again we don't have a right to self defense-, or even hospitals.
Also due to regulations and taxes, the building of new appartments and houses can't keep up with demand either, before the chinese flu hit this place, we also had a significant movement of migrants who moved to the capital (where half the population lives btw) for work. Now before someone says something, mind you we have a strong welfare state and high unemployment, and with all the regulations in place it didn't make the city a better or cheaper place. Maybe in another scenario it'd be different but that's the reality of it.
It's just amazing how the state fucks up at every single level, from access to goods like cars, to self defense, to imports, and how it affects everything including renting a house. You would look at the houses but you never look at the myriad of reasons as to WHY is the way it is.
TL;DR the state makes everything expensive and it sucks.