Tech companies like Google have been making commitments to invest in additional housing near their campuses, which could increase affordability while easing company recruitment costs, Redfin reports.
In order to recruit talent, tech companies have to pay high salaries so that employees can afford housing and an overall high cost of living with money left over for savings. Investing in housing near headquarters could bring down the cost of recruiting and paying talent over time. It could also help with employee retention if people are less likely to eventually need to either leave the area in search of affordability or quit in favor of a higher-paying job. But it’s possible demand for housing could outpace these increases in housing supply, to the point that these new units remain unaffordable to most of the people who would want to live in them.
At the same time, the cities where these Google employees live would have to pay their teachers, police officers and firefighters more to retain those public servants. These cities would likely have to increase taxes to fund wage increases, which would further push up the cost of living. It’s a much better long-term strategy to build housing to stop the cycle of rising costs of living. That way Google can keep its salary growth in-check and help mitigate rising housing costs for all local residents.
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