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Basements are by far the most expensive parts of apartment building. It's one of the reasons that reducing parking requirements for apartment buildings is a good way to make housing more cost-effective to build and therefore to increase housing supply (last I heard).

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Yeah but parking above ground is probably cheaper than building out apartments. I've lived in buildings where the first 6 or 8 floors were parking. And a parking space rented for several hundred a month, on top of your apartment rent.

expensive to build, but less desirable for anyone (but parking) so there's no incentive to build much. It will definitely be more expensive than a warehouse 45 minutes away - even in the most expensive cities (where they do build basements to the extent that they can before they hit subways and whatever).

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