[kamaal]

>>Anyone visiting a Dutch city can see what a distortion this comment is.

Your parent comment is saying the same thing. Stay inside the city, close enough to your office that you can reach it by a bicycle. Of course in that case you could say the rent you would be pay would be equally higher. Plus not every one can afford to do that(given school availability, and your spouse office has to be close by too).

On a net basis, its again the same thing. You just pay for your time with higher rents.