Most cities in Australia and New Zealand are like this, and I'd guess Canada and the U.S. as well. This is one-person one-vote "democracy" at work: the land-owners vote in the government that restricts supply via zoning laws, and boosts demand via immigration and international students. When even just a bare majority of people have jobs they hate and there's 95% bank loans available on houses and apartments, they'll gang up via the government on the renters and lower-waged to get those residential land prices going up. They want to sell their city houses and leave their jobs as soon as they can, and there's plenty of immigrants from Asia who'll happily rent and buy up with funds they earnt via questionable means in their home countries.