Peer reviewed2024Canton of Zurich, Switzerland

Making Housing Affordable? The Local Effects of Relaxing Land-Use Regulation

Büchler & Lutz

Main finding

Substantial upzonings increased housing over five to ten years, especially where prior zoning was binding and rents signaled strong demand.

About 9% more living space and housing units in upzoned areas after five to ten years

Most important limitation

Local quality-adjusted rents did not differ significantly from later-upzoned controls; effects may diffuse across the wider market, and the setting is one Swiss canton.

From the publication

Inspect the authors' figure directly

Study chart · redrawn

Figure 2 · Living space after upzoning

The strongest post-reform increases appear after roughly five years, especially for large upzonings.

REDRAWN FROM STUDY DATAFigure 2 · Living space after upzoning

Figure 2 · Living space after upzoning. Values digitized from Figure 2; the long-run all-treatment value is checked against the paper’s approximately 9% estimate in the archived publication; minor reading error is possible.
Years relative to upzoning	All upzonings	Large upzonings	Small upzonings
−4	-1	-2	0
−3	0	-1	0
−2	-1	0	-1
−1	0	0	0
0	0	0	0
+1	0	1	0
+2	1	2	1
+3	2	4	1
+4	3	6	2
+5	5	9	3
+6	6	11	4
+7	7	13	5
+8	8	15	5
+9	9	16	6

How this study is used

Claims this evidence supports

Strong evidenceA city cannot build homes it has made illegal.See the full evidence stack →Strong evidenceLegal on paper is not the same as buildable in practice.See the full evidence stack →

Reference

Büchler & Lutz (2024). “Making Housing Affordable? The Local Effects of Relaxing Land-Use Regulation.”

Open publisher or paper

Making Housing Affordable? The Local Effects of Relaxing Land-Use Regulation

Substantial upzonings increased housing over five to ten years, especially where prior zoning was binding and rents signaled strong demand.

Inspect the authors' figure directly

Claims this evidence supports

Solution guides informed by this study