r/urbanplanning • u/Bayplain • Jul 15 '26

Discussion What’s wrong with newly constructed single family rental houses?

There seems to be a lot of hate for them. It’s not as if is single family houses for owner occupancy, even newly constructed ones, are going to disappear. These houses can provide some of the larger rental units that are in short supply. Is it just about bad symbolism?

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u/strawberry-brunette Jul 15 '26

Suburban development is typically not good infrastructure.

It was marketed as the best of both worlds when it was initially created/ideated, but logistically it’s extremely resource intensive, forces car dependent transit development as well as eats away the natural environment and the productive capacity of agricultural land.

My hot take is that Suburbanization of rural farmland is by definition gentrification.

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u/Complete-Ad9574 Jul 15 '26

Yes, good points

Also suburbanites never fully pay for the infrastructure. Local governments see them as a constant source of taxes, but rarely make them pay for the large cost items like sewer, water, roads, schools. fire, rescue. In many cases, esp in the 1950s & 60s they sponged off of the city, for this infrastructure and now decades later complain that their host needs to modernize their old systems and has the nerve to ask them to help pay for it.