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Comment by revelio | Hacker News Reader

You realize the house price obsession is rather uniquely British, right? It's a bit of a national stereotype to people outside the UK. In many countries it's considered normal to rent, including rich countries.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/land-of-lessees_swiss-continue-...

Weirdly, the dominance of renting in Switzerland doesn't stop the Swiss having children. So this is really very much a media induced anxiety disorder of some sort. It's not rational to decide whether or not to have children based on whether you can get a mortgage.

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Perhaps I worded it poorly, but I meant housing as in a place to live regardless of if that's achieved via ownership or renting. Both are getting more expensive compared to median wage as we build less than the increase in population. I didn't think that was a uniquely British phenomenon, but I'd be happy to learn otherwise.

General housing pressure certainly isn't a unique phenomenon, just the obsession with ownership. But many other countries have managed immigration levels better and don't experience the same level of pressure on the housing market as a consequence. Again Switzerland is an example.

I realise the UK is starting in one of the worst positions for house price pressure, but it does seem to be a general trend in all Western countries. My point is that it seems like my potential children would need to work harder to get the same level of basic necessities. It might be getting tougher more slowly in some countries than others, but that doesn't meet the criterion I feel is necessary of mostly getting better for most people.

Many but not all. Populations and governments that manage things well can keep house prices stable:

https://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/Switzerland/Home-...

As you can see, Swiss single family house prices were stable since 2016. It's a different lifestyle, there's a lot of apartment living with shared gardens for example, but it can be done.

The absolute cost isn't a perfect measure for what I'm considering though because it will need to be compared to median real income. Looking at this: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ILC_MDED01__c... it appears housing is costing a bigger share of household disposable income over time in Switzerland

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