What happens when you allow residents to veto new building plans?

To answer this question, look at Sweden, with a constitutional law that allows municipalities to veto building plans. We have blogged about the politics of restrictive zoning that reduces supply and drives up housing prices, transferring profit from renters and would-be homeowners to existing homeowners.

 While average price of a house in the European Union increased 3.8 percent during 2015, in Sweden the figure was a huge 14.2 percent, putting the country top of a new table looking at property price hikes. Hungary (10.3 percent) and the United Kingdom (7.1 percent) were in second and third place.