[taurussai]

In Bangalore, sale price/monthly rent ratio in an ok neighborhood would be around 200. In a pretty good neighborhood this go up to to 300-400. Mumbai is more expensive than this. Nobody buys property in India and makes a killing off the rents -- its mainly the price appreciation (inflation is around 6-7%).

[gozur88]

That's the classic real estate bubble.

[pm90]

In countries of > 1 billion people who are racing towards development, the real estate bubble just goes on and on. Even in smaller cities, real estate is seen as a very profitable investment as even more people make the rural to urban transition, jacking up demand to stratospheric levels.

[snambi]

Population of Bay area is about ~7 million. Not even 100 million. The real estate bubble is going on for 50+ years here. So, it is nothing to do with population. Today what we call as growth is just a bubble.

[gozur88]

Bubbles always last longer than you'd think, but at some point they all end. Absent some kind of crazy government intervention, prices are ultimately supported by rent.

[seanmcdirmid]

In china, people are banking on urbanization: because poor farmers are really going to be able to afford a small apartment in the city for $1 million. Really.