And as he prepares to leave office early next year, the crisis is still far from solved.

在他明年初準備要離開此職位時，危機依然尚未解決。

Since 2008, London's economy and population have boomed, pushing house prices to above their previous pre-financial crisis high.

從2008年開始，倫敦的經濟和人口急遽增加，促使房價上升到比前一次金融危機時還要高。

The price of an average London home has increased by 44% since Mr. Johnson took office in May 2008.

自從Johnson先生在2008年五月掌管職位之後，倫敦平均房價已上升到44%。

As a result, housing is the issue on every Londonist's lips.

因此，房價已成了每個倫敦人都會談論的話題。

Soaring house prices have been accompanied by an influx of foreign cash,

急遽上升的房價伴隨著外國現金的湧入

triggering heated arguments about who should live in the new high-rise towers beginning to dot the skyline.

造成了關於誰應該住在新興高房價佈滿天際的高樓裡的激烈辯論。

Loose lower capital from less safe economic regions like Russia, China, and the middle east

從像是俄羅斯、中國、以及中東這些經濟較不安全的地區而來的零散低額資金，

have been heading for the residential property markets in London and New York principally.

已經慢慢朝向主要在倫敦及紐約的房地產市場前進。

This is taking out the top-end of property from the London market, because it's appeared merely being used as safe deposit boxes for this capital.

這形同於把高級房地產驅離倫敦市場，因為它只被用來當作資金的保值投資。

This then has an effect in pulling the rest of the market upwards.

不過，這有把其餘的市場向上拉的效果。

Couple that with a lack of supply, and you'll see why prices are skyrocketing.

把上述的情形與供給缺乏一起看，你就會知道為什麼價格會突然高升了。

As in the Victorian era, Mr. Johnson believed Londonists should be housed within the city's boundaries.

就像在維多利亞時代，Johnson 先生相信倫敦人應該要住在城市當中。

When the capital's population grew rapidly in the 19th century, areas like Belgravia were built in a construction boom.

當19世紀首都的人口快速增加時，一些像是 Belgravia 的地區的建設也急遽增加。

London's population has grown by nearly 730,000 people since Boris Johnson took office. He, too, faces a housing challenge.

自從 Boris Johnson 掌管職位之後，倫敦的人口成長了近730,000人。所以同樣的，他也面臨了房地產的挑戰。

Mr. Johnson's first target in 2008 was to build 32,000 homes a year.

Johnson 2008年的第一個目標是一年建造32,000棟房子。

Now, that figure has been revised up to 49,000, and some people say the city needs more than 60,000 a year.

現在數字調整到49,000棟，有些人甚至說這個城市一年需要超過60,000棟房子。

But despite upping the target, London built just 20,520 homes in 2014 and 15.

但是儘管提高了目標，倫敦在2014及15年也只建造了20,520棟房子。

Meanwhile, the affordability crisis has pushed the generation out of home ownership and into the private renting sector, Boris Johnson's critics claim.

同時，Boris Johnson 的批評者也說承擔不起的房價讓年輕世代從擁有房子變成只能夠租房。

I think that he's made city hall a make-up for property developers all across the world, and we need that investments to build the homes that we need.

我認為他用市政府為全世界的財產投資者做彌補，不過那筆投資應該要來建造我們所需的房子。

The problem is that we're not actually building the homes that we need. The homes are being built at 1 million, 2 million more,

問題在於我們並沒有真正在建造我們所需的房子。這些房子最少都超過一、兩百萬。

and what we really need is homes for people who can, you know, work as a teacher, as a police officer and still have a safe, affordable place that they can call home.

但我們真正需要的房子是給那些，像是老師、警察們一個安全、承擔得起、他們可以稱作家的地方。

And too often we see those developers who have sort of skirting their affordability, obligations,

我們常常看到那些建商閃避他們的責任義務。

and that's really gonna have a big effect on the job market as we already see entry level jobs are being hard to fill because people just can't afford to live in the city anymore.

這真的對工作市場造成很大的影響，我們可以看到一些基本工作很難再找到人來做，因為人們不再能夠承擔住在城市裡的開支。

In a bid to tackle the problem, Mr. Johnson and colleagues have shifted from myriad fragmented-funding programs to a holistic approach,

為了試圖努力解決問題，Johnson 和同事們從大量零碎的資金計畫轉變成整體的策略，

focused primarily on the native specific neighborhoods called housing zones.

主要專注在本國的一個叫做「住宅區」的特定鄰近地區。

One of the things that we've seen in recent years, even though London's had a buoyant market,

一個我們在近幾年中看到的現象是，即使倫敦有一個有潛力上漲的市場，

is that actually there's only a handful of areas, a handful of bureaus that have contributed significant numbers of new homes.

還是只有少數的地區及機構負責大量的新房子。

So what we're doing is working in partnership with both the private sector and local government, local authorities, to designate 20 areas of London,

所以現在我們在做的是跟私人部門、地方政府、地方當局合作去指派倫敦的20個地區，

to make sure that we have a real focus around accelerating residential house building activity,

確定我們真的專注於加速房子的建造。

whether that be around the transport node, whether that be around a town-centered region and ration,

不論是在交通節點的附近，或是在城鎮中心的地區，

or whether that be around turning Brownfield land, usually ex-industrial land, into new homes, beautiful new homes.

或是把棕土 (通常是過去工業使用後的土地) 變成新房子，漂亮的新房子，

Critics say much more could have been done during Mr. Johnson's time in office. But City Hall says it needs more power.

評論家說在Johnson執政時期應該可以做更多，但市政府說需要更多力量。

So Mr. Johnson has initiated the biggest expansion of local power since The Greater London Council was abolished by Margaret Thatcher in 1986.

所以 Johnson 從1986年倫敦議會被 Margaret Thatcher 廢除後開始主導地方力量的擴大，

He has added control over housing policy and spending to the mayor's primary area of responsibility, transport.

他控制房屋政策和在市長負責的主要區域- 交通上的花費。

When the JLA was originally set up, it could've invested in housing, now it can't.

當 JLA 剛開始建立時，可以投資房屋，但現在不行了。

I think it's also really really important as a strong role for London government in assembling land,

我認為倫敦政府在收集土地上也扮演很重要的角色。

so that we can go in that and really transform a place and look at the powers that we have and the resource that we have in order to enable that.

所以我們可以從這方面著手，並真的運用我們有的力量及資源去讓它實現。

Mr. Johnson will leave office next spring, and London is set to see a fierce battle to be his successor.

Johnson 下個春天會離開職位，倫敦即將面臨一場激烈的職位爭奪戰。

His housing power grab will leave the next mayor as the most powerful politician London has seen for a generation.

他在房屋上深遠的影響將會讓下個市長成為倫敦這個世代最有影響力的人物。

K. Tailen, Financial Times, London.

K. Tailen，金融泰晤士報，倫敦報導。