Josh Ryan-Collins

“In New York City and San Francisco, for example, rents increased from about a quarter of median incomes in 2000 to almost half (42% and 46% respectively) by 2016.6 Meanwhile, 51% of renter households in the nation’s nine largest metropolitan areas pay more than 30% of their income – the standard maximum ratio for affordability – on housing.7 Saving for a deposit to buy a home becomes virtually impossible under such conditions.”
― Josh Ryan-Collins, Why Can't You Afford a Home?

“The examples of Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea show how planning gain and the spillover effects of income and population growth on land values can be partly socialised to benefit the nation, rather than a relatively concentrated class of landowners. In Germany, for example, the planning law freezes the value of the land when the local municipality decides to specify an area for residential construction.1 The uplift in land values then finances infrastructure. A national public land bank, as in Korea, or public or community-owned land banks able to acquire land at existing use values can achieve the same objective. In many respects the UK’s New Town building programme from 1946 to 1970 was also able to do this.”
― Josh Ryan-Collins, Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing