It happens in the US too. 1br rents are like $2000 in LA. 3 bedroom 1500sqft starter homes are north of $1.5m even in the worst neighborhoods in the city. If you ask why rents and housing is so high, it's due to a a lack of political will to increase supply. It seems backward until you realize the majority of voters in local elections are homeowners, the council members in charge of unilateraly approving or disallowing development in their district are homeowners, and the lawmakers at the state level are also homeowners, all of which have a vested interest in achieving exponential gains on their assets.

I can't help but imagine how different this state would be if the governor of California came from a rental apartment, or from living in their car, and not the latest approved candidate from the old California political machine (Governor Gavin Newsom is a respected SF judge's son, Mayor Eric Garcetti's father was the LA DA for 20 years). Maybe political priorities would actually shift to the working poor rather than the landowning elite for the first time ever in California.