At least in London, this has been a problem for 20-30 years. For most young people, buying a house is becoming an impossibility.

Supply is increasing, but slowly, and there's a limit on how dense people want to have the city.

Demand side looks like the better area to focus. Reducing population would help significantly, combined with taxes/disincentives on second home ownership and vacant properties.

Unfortunately these policies are unpopular with governing parties because:

a) the politicians own property (and often more than one) b) older people vote, and they tend to be doing well out of the situation

I see a lot of right wing VC folk on twitter calling for massive derugulation of the housing market to grow supply. However, I think there's a strong case to be made that housing and land are different from other parts of the market. People want green space, they don't want high rise everywhere. You cannot (for the most part) make new land.

So, I agree that this problem won't be solved for 20+ years. Declining population is probably our best bet to improve the situation. And of course, young people will move to cheaper areas, particularly when they start families.