SF gets all the press for having loony real estate costs but vs wages it’s actually not the worst. The craziest places are those with $1-2M starter homes and low pay.
How can a market even exist?
Canada's housing bubble (?) existed since at least the early 2000s when I was in grad school. Everyone expected the bubble to pop. When condo prices continued to be strong during covid (who the heck would buy condos), I just had to admit I was wrong. This is not a bubble but we did not see the true factors driving things. Immigration is the biggest one. People do indeed bring suitcases of cash from all over the world (including Ukraine). After covid, we had a torrent of international students enter, and these folks are bolstering rents (real-estate investment is probably the most profitable activity in Canada).
The rest, well, it's some of those factors, but it's also the whole system designed to be static and reward pensioners with property and investors. Every facet of the system is fucked, and it ain't gunna get better.
Plenty of British Nationals and foreigners across the world will buy property in London, causing downstream impacts on housing across the rest of the UK.
In addition, British cities are artificially constrained from building due to the "Green Belt" construction bans from the 1930s-60s to prevent mass sprawl. All it did was essentially block construction though [0]
On top of that, the UK has a very severe inequality issue - almost all (relatively) high paying jobs are located in Greater London, which forces prices to go into hypergrowth in an area smaller than Santa Clara County.
Also, the UK has been in a lost decade since austerity kicked in around 2008 when several MASSIVE banks in the UK collapsed, which causes wages and spending within most industries and govt services in the UK to essentially be frozen at 2000s levels. [1]
[0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_belt_(United_Kingdom)
[1] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-12/a-lost-de...
Good for those with existing capital who can access the credit and use growing equity to leverage new investments. Terrible for anyone without existing capital actually earning an income.
Both of these factors appear to be changing in many places (very significantly here in NZ). Interesting times ahead.
So people don't need to buy housing with their own resources in many cases. It can also include the resource of two more people, or even 6 more people (grandparents chip in).
This is absolutely not true. I don't know where you're taking this from.
The endless lectures of Dave Ramsey on not wanting to provide a "hammock" for kids are also an abundant source of information.
North American parents won't consistently have a college fund for their kids. Also planning to pay for the down payment on their home is absolutely not normal for them.
Shared equity schemes are popular - both with investors and property buyers.
Lending criteria have been relaxed again, it’s easier to get a mortgage.
There’s a view in the UK that house prices can only go up. The shortage of housing stock bolsters this view.