Someone asked me:
"Since housing has so much influence on economic growth, why can’t the government give everyone free housing to drive it"

This has merit... and we can explore it really deep

👇👇

First...
✅️ Everyone agrees that housing drives economic growth. And...
✅️ If housing is this fundamental to GDP growth & economic development, then giving everyone (free) housing should literally be a cheat code to run the economy on steroids.

... Well, it makes sense until you run the numbers.


So, What will it cost?

Say, at an austere N25m (~$20,000) per unit for 28 million homes,
🟰 That’s $560 billion‼️
↪️ Nearly 2x the country’s GDP, excluding infrastructure.

This is not only just expensive… it’s pure b*nkers!!
But the deeper issue isn’t even this impossible cost.
Say the government decides the economic rewards justify the expenditure, the sheer implication of failure (or success) suddenly becomes more than the financial limitations.


For this to make sense, let's revert to basic ECONOMICS 101, again.

📍 Money, whether public or private, must be exchanged for equal value to maintain a balanced system.
📍 Housing isn’t just shelter.
It’s an asset class, a productivity anchor, and a value exchange system.

Remove that exchange (factor), and you distort the entire market.
A $560B "distortion' that could actually force a recession.


We’ve seen this before, or something that looks almost like it.
The 2008 financial crisis wasn’t just about housing but mainly about disconnecting value from reality.

Now imagine it happening all over again, only that now, without a mortgage to support it, without any commitment apart from (anticipated) economic growth.
↪️ Just 28 million free units.
➡️ Which is tantamount to printing $560b out of thin air...

All on taxpayers... Add:
👉 Weak tax systems, (many citizens do not pay taxes adequately, reducing projected revenue to support such projects.)
👉 Low financial inclusion, (limited access to financial services such as mortgages and banking restricts economic participation) and
👉 Poor identity tracking…

And the risks morph.

This would directly impact:
🚩 Housing market. Collapse in housing values & market destabilisation.
🚩 The labour market. Free housing --> Sense of entitlement --> Reduced participation in labour market --> Negative productivity.
🚩 Infrastructure. Increased costs for new infrastructure for housing.
🚩 Higher taxes and/or budget cuts to fund such a high-capital, high-risk project.
🚩 Inflation. Possible inflation from money printing or increased disposable income driving up demand for commodities.


Truly, housing can catalyse economic growth, but "free housing" is a stretch.
A stretch that may fix the crisis, but which will break the economy.
Almost with the guarantee of a recession.

The real solution to housing is creating economic systems that help people afford housing within their income.