The U.S. is generally very laissez faire in many things, but very much not so in the realm of land use.
That’s flatly false.
In my city, which is typical in this regard, most of the land area is locked-in by law to single-family dwellings
Laws written by developers which would change overnight if the largest firms told the city council to change them.
You have this backwards. These are not restrictions on big business. They’re rules written by landlords as part of a cartelization of real estate.
Houston is a great instance of this. We officially have “no zoning”, but so many HOAs and other contractual limits during deed transfer (the “single family” rule being a good example) that you’d never notice the difference.
In areas without extensive deed restrictions, AirBnB style investors have gobbled up available real estate for short term rentals. Efforts at the municipal level to curb this practice die in the same city council and courts that militantly defend the HOA in disputes.
That’s flatly false.
Laws written by developers which would change overnight if the largest firms told the city council to change them.
You have this backwards. These are not restrictions on big business. They’re rules written by landlords as part of a cartelization of real estate.
Houston is a great instance of this. We officially have “no zoning”, but so many HOAs and other contractual limits during deed transfer (the “single family” rule being a good example) that you’d never notice the difference.
In areas without extensive deed restrictions, AirBnB style investors have gobbled up available real estate for short term rentals. Efforts at the municipal level to curb this practice die in the same city council and courts that militantly defend the HOA in disputes.