Urban land doesn’t need to decrease in price, just urban housing. If you allow building up then it’s profitable to keep building units even as their rent falls.
Recent historical cases of urban land decreasing in price aren’t ones to emulate; they’re cases like Detroit where a city has become dramatically less desirable over time due to an industry dying. But Seattle has recently built enough new housing that they’ve seen a small decrease in rents: https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2019/01/apartment-rents-dropping-in-seattle-landlords-compete-for-tenants-as-market-cools.html
Urban land doesn’t need to decrease in price, just urban housing. If you allow building up then it’s profitable to keep building units even as their rent falls.
Recent historical cases of urban land decreasing in price aren’t ones to emulate; they’re cases like Detroit where a city has become dramatically less desirable over time due to an industry dying. But Seattle has recently built enough new housing that they’ve seen a small decrease in rents: https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2019/01/apartment-rents-dropping-in-seattle-landlords-compete-for-tenants-as-market-cools.html