... or may be it has already arrived. This article in the last week-end's Wall street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304337404579213911452490246 details the delirious (and 'diliterious', as they'd say ... in India) assets inflation represented by the market value of old wooden 'yalis' (mansions) on the shore of the Bosphorus in Istanbul. These properties, often hundreds of years old, change hands for astronomical prices, usually from an established, local owner to a 'nouveau riche', national or foreign - and often the latter. Rise in 'value' has been fierce, not to say demented, over the past decade. Goa's interior is also dotted, in my remembrance, with old, traditionally built large houses, commonly, and I guess wrongly, referred to as 'Portuguese'. I wonder if the same phenomenon is at work (t)here as in Istanbul (and I suppose it is): ueber-wealthy newcomers snapping up properties, only to add them up to their already overfilled real estate show-off portfolio they do preciously little with (you can't live in more than one house at the same time). Or as the article's last statement (by one of these new owners) concludes: "Unfortunately, I can't spend much time at the yali these days because of my busy work schedule. So, it's mostly the gardener and the house staff who get to enjoy it." On the bright side one may say that if this was not happening, the houses would be lost by neglect - now at least they're being restored and saved. On the other hand I see a huge 'disruption' of the local social landscape. But isn't it not what capitalism is all about?