Spiralling prices tend to reflect rising demand for housing, which has partly been caused by factors such as the expansion of the middle class and low levels of financial-market development.4 While rising purchasing power makes housing increasingly affordable for the middle classes, a lack of opportunities for financial investment is also leading to additional demand for housing units for investment purposes by wealthy individuals. Technological progress tends to favour capital over labour and skilled labour over unskilled labour, which can exacerbate differences in rates of economic growth among countries and within them.7 Advances in information and communication technology, along with the emergence of social media and information and communication technologies (ICT), for example, have spawned a new cadre of billionaires across developed countries and emerging economies.