Finance & economics | Housing problems

Why rents are still rising too fast

Rich-world tenants are angry, and have reason to be

illustration of houses with red roofs and white walls against a green background. Some of the houses have large yellow arrows emerging from them, pushing their roofs upward. The arrows increase in height from left to right, resembling a rising bar graph
Illustration: Rob en Robin
|San Francisco

Across advanced economies, the rental market is undergoing a profound change. In the years before covid-19 struck, rents were high but not growing fast: the cost of leasing a home rose by about 2% a year, according to official data. During the pandemic, rental inflation slowed and, in some cities, rents fell as landlords desperately looked for tenants.

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