I saw a good documentary on shell construction in South America as a means to improve access to home ownership, as well as to allow homeowners to significantly customize the homes over time. We don’t see this much in the US but it makes sense to me.
When you are cheap labor you will have big problems getting ahead because of rent. So as soon as you save enough to buy land you do (between inflation and government revolutions banks are not useful, you have better odds your land will be recognized). Until you can afford to get a minimal shelter room on the land though you are renting while owning useless land. Once you have shelter everything that went to rent before can be put into more rooms.
It is a very different world from the ones most of us live in.
