Surely they would not regret building several dozen more empty high rise apartments.

If they have the idle production capacity to build empty high rises, that’s as good as economic activity as any to keep people busy and fed without UBI. Probably better than building bombs and dropping them so they can build more. UBI is probably better than either.

B-b-but the home owner numbers are huuuge

I don’t understand the criticism. Empty apartments keep real estate prices low. It’s the same government intervention that the US does with farmers to keep food prices low by paying for unused food surpluses.

Meanwhile, in the US where there is no government sponsored surplus of housing, young adults can’t find affordable housing