The problem is getting worse as new jobs are mainly created in cities. They also offer a more attractive infrastructure such as fast internet speeds and shorter commutes, than rural areas. There are of course many other advantages, but I think these are some of the most significant ones. This creates an unhealthy growth, which we see now manifests in the completely out-of-control rents worldwide. The only way this problem can be tackled is to invest massively in the rural infrastructure and stop this disturbing trend towards growing megacities and sparsely inhabited rural areas. Rising rents contribute to an large extent on social inequality. As a renter will only get living space for each month but nothing else of value in return, as opposed to buying a house/flat. The calculation for renting has been fine in the past decades as renting was often cheaper than buying a house, but this changed as we see now.
ryuker16|8 years ago
Since investors can't as easily build new housing, they invest in existing ones as speculation.
If the demand is there, the skies should be filled with construction cranes and new tech investment in building cheaper, faster, etc.
Instead we slap protectionism on it so everybody fights over a smaller piece of the real estate pie.
kylestlb|8 years ago