Housing is Crazy in San Fran....

And there I was thinking that London had a housing crisis....it's nothing compared to Silicon Valley in California... the average rent in San Francisco is more than $3K a month.

Things are so bad that rent controls are being mooted, and I stumbled across this article which focuses on a startup offering sleeping pods for $700 a month, which has been deluged with enquiries.

Occupants get access to a small double mattress in a stacked pod, with just enough room to sit upright, shielded by a privacy curtain.

Apparently they have received 20 applications per pod, which is MENTAL. $700 is only just shy of what I pay for my mortgage and I get a whole HOUSE for that, TO MYSELF!

Then again, they get a shared kitchen and bathroom, and access to a workspace, and bills are included. Small wins!

Not just demand and high wages...?

I mean I've been to San Fran, and I could happily live there, it's lovely, come to think of it I did stay in a rather cramped hostel, and that was back in the mid 1990s, I guess the population density hasn't changed.

Being a coastal town, there's only so much room to expand, and it's a historical city so development isn't going to be that easy, and then there's the tech jobs with high wages, all of which are going to push prices of rentals up. And if you're paying $35K a year just for rent, then there must be PLENTY of people on 6 figure salaries around.

But apparently it's not just real supply and demand, some landlords deliberately keep some of their properties empty to maximise returns, assisted by AI property software apparently.

Said software is probably going to be banned, but I can't see how that's going to stop people from using it... I mean what is the State going to do... monitor the computers of every property company....?

Rent controls needed...?

TBH I am inclined to say yes. I mean there's no need for Silicon Valley to be located in just one place which then pushes up rents so ordinary people can't afford to live there.

There's no need for landlords to make a killing off the back of this.

And if rent controls meant all the tech bros didn't have anywhere to live because, well, ordinary people were allowed to live in spacious houses, then I guess it would be easy enough for tech companies to go and locate somewhere else, or develop hybrid working models.

Kind of spread the wealth and tech about rather than it all cluster-fucking in one place.

Same could apply to London, of course, it's a shit show there too, just not as bad as San Fran where it's intensified.

Just a few thoughts....

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