Like one of the comments on BT said, he really didn’t need to go overseas to see that.

His basic idea is…reduce zoning restrictions to allow medium density to be “peppered across the city”. Which is precisely what I’ve been saying for some time. He talks about it from the perspective of reducing the power of NIMBYs and sharing the load across all neighbourhoods. Which is a good perspective.

When I’ve talked about the same, the perspective I’ve been using has mainly been about the impact for the prospective new residents. Specifically, that medium density is the nicest way to live, but our current model councils tend to try to keep as much low density as possible, which means that when they do relent and allow more density, they’re strongly incentivised to permit as much density as possible in that place. So we end up with a lot of our non-low-density areas being quite high density, which is less than ideal.

I also prefer it because it allows more development to actually happen. The low-until-we-have-to-go-very-high model puts a lot of power in the hands of big developers. Because only big developers can afford to build massive 4+ storey apartments. The result is that they’re able to land bank and slow the supply of new housing so that they don’t put downward pressure on housing. Permit medium density and more people can get involved. A moderately wealthy individual can build a 2 storey row home. Anyone who already owns a house can afford to convert it into a duplex. A small group could band together to build a 3-storey apartment block. Change zoning rules so that anyone can do any of these things with land they own by right (instead of needing to apply for an impact-assessable DA) allows much more supply of housing.