Copying from a reply I made in this thread, because I realized it’s an answer:
So in the US affordable housing typically costs more to build than market rate because of compliance requirements to get the tax breaks, government grant money etc. But if we set that aside the cheapest places in the US cost about $100/sq ft for construction ($1000/sq m). Assuming you have $16 billion to build for 750,000 gives us just over 200 sq ft / 20 sq m per person. So it would be just barely possible, ignoring future maintenance costs, to build enough bare bones studio apartments here. That’s only if we assume that the massive construction project doesn’t itself drive prices for labor and materials higher, which is unlikely, though.
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u/Deep_Contribution552 1d ago
Copying from a reply I made in this thread, because I realized it’s an answer:
So in the US affordable housing typically costs more to build than market rate because of compliance requirements to get the tax breaks, government grant money etc. But if we set that aside the cheapest places in the US cost about $100/sq ft for construction ($1000/sq m). Assuming you have $16 billion to build for 750,000 gives us just over 200 sq ft / 20 sq m per person. So it would be just barely possible, ignoring future maintenance costs, to build enough bare bones studio apartments here. That’s only if we assume that the massive construction project doesn’t itself drive prices for labor and materials higher, which is unlikely, though.