Modern housing is available to a large part of the population today. Well, at least here in Europe. The majority of appartment blocks in Austria are built by companies, that are at least partly communal property, or that get subsidized for conforming to communal needs. It’s market-oriented (no way the rich could miss out), but subsidies and the public shares guarantee, that even low incomes enable living in dignity.
Of course, prices still rise, especially in the non-subsidized sector, and of course the “conservative” parties try their best to break the system. So far, it’s been remarkably resistant though.
Basically it’s always easy to scare people of what they could have. Once they have it, it’s much harder to convince them, that having something they take for granted, should better be taken from them.