A new technological proposal promises to accelerate home construction to solve the housing crisis. However, it overlooks the real obstacle: land speculation and the lack of political will to regulate its price. Building faster is useless if access to land remains blocked by banks and large landowners who hoard developable land, making every square meter more expensive.
3D Printing and Modules: Speed Without Tackling Land Prices 🏗️
Technical solutions like modular construction or 3D printing reduce timelines and construction costs, but they don't address the real problem: land value, which accounts for up to 60% of a home's final price. As long as land remains a financial asset in the hands of speculators, any construction innovation will only produce faster houses, but equally expensive ones. Without taxing vacant lots or limiting sale and rental prices, technology will be nothing more than a cosmetic fix for a broken system.
The Construction Miracle That Forgot to Buy the Land 🏡
The next time a tech guru announces they will print a neighborhood in three days, ask them who owns the land. Because, spoiler alert, they either don't know or don't care. Meanwhile, banks will sleep soundly with their vacant lots, and the political class will keep applauding innovation while rental prices rise. Hey, at least the houses will be pretty and quick... to see someone else buy them.