Are real estate prices today the equivalent of bread prices? It’s a question that was recently asked by a trade union leader in Germany, where there has been a push to seize corporate-owned rental units and put them in public ownership. Many Dutch cities want to ban investors from buying cheap homes to rent out.
South Korea’s ruling party took a beating in mayoral elections for failing to stop a 90 per cent hike in the average price of a Seoul apartment. China’s president Xi Jinping has made affordable housing a huge part of his common prosperity theme, saying that housing is “for living in, not speculation”.
We know home prices are inflated in many places. But a new study from the McKinsey Global Institute, which tallies up the balance sheets of 10 countries that represent 60 per cent of global income (Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, the UK and the US), has some eye-popping numbers about just how much money is in real estate, and why.