There are 2 ways we can see your example. Living in 400sq m house when you only need 40sq m could be:
1) equivalent to living in a 40sq m apartment and owning a separate ~300 sq m house elsewhere but not renting it. Well, of course in this case you're losing money as long as you don't rent it. Even if the real estate prices go up and you finally sell the house years later, you need also to subtract the money you threw away by not renting it, or say, compare to the situation you didn't buy the extra house and instead invested the money on Treasuries.
2) Going back to one 400sq m house. Now of course one could claim one's using and enjoying the extra-space beyond the 40sq m. Later, after the housing price goes up, you sell it and buy a 40sq m apartment; but this means you're cutting down on your monthly consumption of housing. So this doesn't deflate the article's premise either.
Not necessarily. In fact, I went to high school in NYC and I distinctly remember my 10th grade History teacher reminding us repeatedly "New York city is nothing like the rest of America!"
There are 2 ways we can see your example. Living in 400sq m house when you only need 40sq m could be:
1) equivalent to living in a 40sq m apartment and owning a separate ~300 sq m house elsewhere but not renting it. Well, of course in this case you're losing money as long as you don't rent it. Even if the real estate prices go up and you finally sell the house years later, you need also to subtract the money you threw away by not renting it, or say, compare to the situation you didn't buy the extra house and instead invested the money on Treasuries.
2) Going back to one 400sq m house. Now of course one could claim one's using and enjoying the extra-space beyond the 40sq m. Later, after the housing price goes up, you sell it and buy a 40sq m apartment; but this means you're cutting down on your monthly consumption of housing. So this doesn't deflate the article's premise either.