[ratsforhorses]

There's a guy who made it big in Silicon valley and bought 150 hectares near Cluj , north west Romania, he's built/building 28 houses with a school and afaik there's a agricultural component attached... curious if he's using ecological insulation (compressed sawdust, hemp, wool) or ecological plumbing, heating systems... seems a good intent but such initiatives have a tendency to push up local land prices :-( I have no idea how much his houses cost but since people have been going to Europe as "cheap" labour and especially since the banks have gotten involved in lending money for real estate purchases , prices have been going through the roof... https://youtu.be/VCBIyvYtMBI

[natly]

I can't imagine most romanians are happy with their land being so cheap overall (and their economy not doing great) so I doubt most people living there would object to the local land prices going up (that's a good thing).

[bckygldstn]

Rising prices are bad for all but the most wealthy

* It’s bad for people who don’t own a house, which disproportionately impacts the poor and the young.

* It doesn’t really help homeowners either: their property taxes go up but the increased land value will just be spent on the increased cost of a new property if they move nearby.

* So the only way to realise increased land value is to move outside the local market. This turnover reduces the community of a neighbourhood, and creates pockets of dull old homogeneous people with no shared history.

* The only real way to benefit from rising prices is to invest in property, further concentrating wealth among the wealthy.

* Treating one of society’s most important assets as an investment has a ton of negative side effects, like poor utilisation due to land banking, cheaply finished low quality buildings rather than ones that vest serve their occupants, evictions, further increased community turnover.

* It’s a self perpetuating cycle, as the wealthy investors vote, lobby, and just straight up are politicians.

[towaway15463]

It’sa double edged sword, the average home price has doubled where I live but it’s also created a homelessness problem where it was non existent before. This seems to also have increased drug use and mental problems or at least exposed them on the public streets but probably both. When homes are cheap people can get by with very little, being poor is not so bad when you have a roof over your head and food and people around you. Now the pre are sleeping rough in the street or overcrowded in tiny apartments with no prospects of having their own home. I’m sure those who can invest in building and selling expensive houses are doing well though.

[thfuran]

Is there anywhere where most people are really glad that a bunch of foreigners are coming in and driving up the prices of necessities?

[burntoutfire]

Most people don't own land, so rising land prices just make them poorer.