Even before Zuckerberg and Musk moved in – so before the tech giants made it their home – rental prices in San Francisco’s Bay Area were rocketing. The year was 1994, and while the attraction of living on the pretty estuary by the famous bridge was obvious, it was not just traditional supply/demand economics influencing this trend.

In 1994, San Francisco introduced rent controls to cool the upward trajectory of rental levels to make the area more accessible. Anyone who has studied economic history knows how this panned out: the supply of housing dwindled 15%, reduced mobility trapped those on lower incomes in their homes and gentrification sped up across the city. Despite their best intentions, rents on new buildings increased at a faster rate than ever before. As Assar Lindbeck, a Swedish Economist who chaired the Nobel Prize Committee, famously declared: rent control is “the best way to destroy a city, other than bombing”.

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