The point is satisficing vs optimizing. An old house or apartment is already livable, in a supermajority of cases. It "needs" nothing, in the strictest sense of the word, and putting it through capital repairs will very likely put it in the red, possibly even compared to building a new house.
Sure, some repairs and improvements may be useful. A universal coat of paint is probably the lowest hanging fruit, mostly due to the broken window effect, and especially if it includes common spaces. Very cheap credits for stuff that will definitely pay itself in a few years, like thermal insulation or heat pumps, depending on climate. Regular checks to make sure it passes very very low safety standards. And that's about it.
The discussion upstream is about building new non-affordable housing, which will automatically increase the supply of used housing, some of which is affordable. So in a way yes :)
The point is satisficing vs optimizing. An old house or apartment is already livable, in a supermajority of cases. It "needs" nothing, in the strictest sense of the word, and putting it through capital repairs will very likely put it in the red, possibly even compared to building a new house.
Sure, some repairs and improvements may be useful. A universal coat of paint is probably the lowest hanging fruit, mostly due to the broken window effect, and especially if it includes common spaces. Very cheap credits for stuff that will definitely pay itself in a few years, like thermal insulation or heat pumps, depending on climate. Regular checks to make sure it passes very very low safety standards. And that's about it.