This is basically the story of every major city I've lived in, except Miami. NYC: crappy, cramped apartments. SF: I believe the crappy ones collapsed after the earthquakes and fires, what's left is typical San Francisco. London: I assume they can't build anything taller than 3 stories outside of London City. Everyone is always complaining how there is no place to live and yet everywhere I went were these squat brownstones. Most had no redeeming architectural qualities so why they weren't razed to the ground still baffles me. Paris: doesn't have the housing pressure of London. I might be biased because I've had the best luck in getting really good apartments in Paris. Either because I'm really lucky or I just figured how and "who" to ask when I needed an apartment. The buildings are 2x the height of London and the city feels much smaller geographically yet feels like the same number of people.
From what I understand, Paris has an appearance ordinance on apartments so property owners have a duty to keep up appearance. Not doing that leads to fines and fines eventually lead to them auctioning off your building. That last part can take decades.
From what I understand, Paris has an appearance ordinance on apartments so property owners have a duty to keep up appearance. Not doing that leads to fines and fines eventually lead to them auctioning off your building. That last part can take decades.