> The only countries that can do something are singapore and china, who are rationally treating housing as a basic need similar to food.

So why are people in China paying hefty loans for apartments that haven’t even been constructed yet? And now due to the housing bubble popping, construction has halted in so many parts of China that there is an epidemic of Chinese people who are refusing to pay their mortgages, and banks are refusing to let go of people’s money because fractional-reserve banking. China sure do have a serious housing crisis that’s arguably worse than that of the west.