In the early days of the pandemic, I thought one long-term silver lining would be to make expensive cities like London cheaper for young renters. I reckoned the shift to hybrid work was going to persist. This would allow office workers to spread further out from overheated urban centres. Plenty of young people would still want the bright lights, but they might not have to pay quite so much to get them.I couldn’t have been more wrong. Housing costs in London did fall for a while, but now the scramble for rental property is more intense than ever. Advertised rents are shooting up. They are 6 per cent higher than pre-pandemic levels in inner London and 8 per cent higher in outer London, according to data from property website Zoopla. It is the same story in other big cities, from New York and Miami to Dublin and Sydney.
在疫情早期，我觉得，从长远来看，一个好的方面是年轻人在伦敦这种昂贵的城市租房会变得便宜一些。我推测，混合办公模式会继续盛行下去，因此办公室职员可以搬到离过热的市中心远一点的地方居住。许多年轻人仍将留恋灯红酒绿的生活，但他们或许不必再掏那么多钱就可以享受都市繁华。