Which is of no consequence when you’re living in it.

It’s not. Unless you’re someone with multiple properties trying to profit off it, then you want it to raise. Otherwise, everyone benefits from low prices.

I agree with you that everybody profits because a liquid housing market will make life much easier.

But people plan to sell their house, or appartment, either to have money to travel when they retire, or for their children to inherit, or for many other reasons.

It can be argued that they already lost the money when they bought the house, so they shouldn’t worry when prices come down now. But I am very confident that whichever party approves the laws that change the market will not be elected for decades.

The limiting factor is not construction crews but plots and approvals.

[citation needed]. There’s plenty of land left and right, it’s almost trivial to re-designate agricultural land as residental

There was a quote some comments ago about the main factors to change for a better housing market.

The designation of the land is the point. It is trivial but it doesn’t happen.

Actually I approve that it doesn’t happen because agricultural land shouldn’t be destroyed unnecessarily, especially when there is still hunger in the world. However, there are many areas with single family housing. Those could be repurposed.

It’s right that there are some logistics to settle. To me, they are small compared to the magnitude of the housing problem. If they are not approached then I think that’s on purpose, with the main goal of keeping the housing market high.