edit: The more I think about it, the more I think this is important regardless of the cost of land. If it became cheaper to &quot;start over&quot; and redevelop underused lots, you could scale up density a lot faster. In that vein, technology to make demolition cheaper&#x2F;faster would help too.<p>---
original:<p>That&#x27;s definitely part of it. But cost of land often dwarfs the construction costs. And some things like excavation (which lets you avoid wasting land on low-value uses) need to be done on site.