Canada

I think they got their conclusions all wrong.

So housing prices still go up even though there was an increase in housing development?

First of all, home prices have gone up due to speculation. Housing has become a commodity as an investment vehicle instead of a basic human right. So the main culprits here are investors and the real estate agents that enable them because they have everything to win from higher home prices since they are paid by commission which is a % of the sales price. In fact, we've seen many such real estate agents get caught in all kinds of ethical cases tying to inflate property values for their own gains.

Also, any new housing units, whether they are condos or houses, will be sold at whatever the market prices are, which are high already. Thus keeping new buyers out of the market. This is used as an incentive for developers to build new homes so they can turn a bigger profit. As an anecdote, In the 80's my parents benefitted from a government program where new home prices couldn't exceed $60k. This was to allow people to afford a home by putting a ceiling on home prices. This is the kind of program that we need right now, but it would definitely cause a decrease in new home construction because it would reduce profits for developers. We would end up with poorly built housing where corners are cut.

Finally, as the author mentioned, for people who already own property, this has been a huge windfall. Especially if their mortgages are paid. However, these people have been using their property as collateral to invest in more housing. We end up with housing barons where, like in Montréal for example, less than half than 1% of the population own over a third of the housing properties in the city. So when new housing is built, they are often the hawks that swoop in to buy these properties using their existing properties as collateral. They can easily price out anybody trying to buy themselves a home to live in. Then you're left with nothng but rentals where you're stuck paying crazy rent prices to these property barons and essentially paying off their mortgage for them.

And one more thing: the author mentions that housing size has increased over the years. I don't know where they got that because that is absolutely not what I have observed. Most new housing around here have been condos and they have been increasingly smaller over time to a point that a double bed can barely even fit in the bedroom!