I guess this kind of happens in Singapore, too. As the billionaires come in, the poorer locals encounter rising housing costs. And unlike the US, Singapore is an island-city-state, so there's nowhere to run.
I can't think of any solutions to this. Anybody have any ideas?
Also, while it stinks for people who are already tied into careers, having money flood into your community isn't exactly a bad thing for somebody entrepreneurial. I mean, if the new wealthy folks want to blow that cash locally, there's a lot of money to be made. It's demeaning in a "trickle-down" services sense, but it's cash to be had.
If a new property costs $500k to build, as a builder you would need to at least cover that cost. I can't imagine that this helps the poor unless it's government sponsored.
I would love for there to be more houses in the place I want to live but can't. But I don't get a vote because I'm not a resident.
In Singapore, unlike many other countries where people think they're out of space (including the UK), they may well be really running out of space - I believe there are similar problems in Hong Kong.
Once various plans to rebalance the economy away from London come to fruition (e.g. HS2) things will return to normal.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/no-stone-unturned... and/or http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20142837 - "The Heseltine Review" isn't a primary source of evidence for this assertion, but it's through this coverage that I learned of these ideas.
To make remote work work, you need a culture where in-crowds and promotions and ladders don't matter (they'll always exist, but some companies give them more weight) and where people are pretty much assured that, even if they never get another title bump-- because those things happen less when you're not in-person-- they'll continue to get work that they're happy with.
I don't know if the last sentence in your first paragraph was advice for Googlers or portable but I'd advise literally everyone to avoid traffic at every possible opportunity... though as I get older I'm much more 'ambitious' about happiness than title bumps, so YMMV.