People should be free to buy the land they want with the money that they've earned or otherwise legally acquired. It's just a basic principle. The principal below that principle, is that you have autonomy over your own body, and your own labor, and you have a choice as to how you apply. And you have a right to the fruits of your labor and creativity and entrepreneurship. And you can spend those fruits, and all the ways that are legal, including buying land, including buying expensive land in desirable places. And that kind of land is expensive. Not everybody can buy it.

Back in 1600 someone declared they owned all the land in a valley. Their descendants still own it, or have benefited from selling it off at various points.

It seems wrong that a decision 400 years ago has bearing on people today.

In the UK it's even worse -- much of the land is still owned by the families that were mates with William the Conquerer back in 1066. About 1500 years ago the king fell out with some landholders (monasteries) and confiscated it, giving it to his mates, who still own it.

Land should not be owned, it should be rented from the people. You improve its value? Great, you shouldn't be charged for that, but the unimproved value of that land is something that should be of benefit to society as a whole.

Land is different from consumer goods.

How would you feel if companies started to divide the available drinking water or breathable air? That rich people controlled who can drink or breathe? And that inheritance determined your odds of survival, not based on genes but on access to basic resources?

It is OK if hard work is rewarded with money.

However, it is not OK if people use that money against the rest of us, who made different life choices.

Since land is a limited resource, there is a problem there.

When people say “we” must “distribute”, it usually rather means that the state should take with force from owners - where oneself is often excluded.

The most well known example of implanting land redistribution on a large scale is known as Holodomor.

“Man plans, God laughs”. It is prideful vanity to think one can plan the economy better than free people who care for their own.

What if we flip the problem around, and figure out how to distribute high quality lifestyles, like the ones offered in the big cities, to the outskirts where land is plentiful and cheap?

There is no shortage of cheap land. There is however a desperate shortage of land on which you can legally build. And that of course is due to zoning regulations.

There's a lot of buildable land. It's just not highly desirable. The land is good, and green, and the neighbors are agreeable, but it's not close to a major city.

EDIT: Case in point, my first purchase in 2017 was 5 acres of buildable land 30 minutes from a tertiary city, with an existing 900 SF manufactured home and 400 SF garage. Total price: $30,000

One of the only real bright stars from the COVID fiasco of 2020 - large swaths of people realizing they can work from home as effectively, if not more, from home. I think we are on the cusp of seeing a population migration that will make the post-WWII suburbanization move look tame in comparison.

And I think we will all be FAR better off for it!

I was totally about to agree with your post based on the first part (needing a better way to distribute land). But I don't feel that idea and the idea of prefab homes are mutually exclusive.

I have worked on this problem but stopped because I need to build an app. I wish to continue.

Better then the market?