This is why Leica is so expensive
It's all over the internet and it is widely discussed in photography circles. Leica is very expensive. This is a fact no one should try to deny. Of course there are many who think it's worth the price, and many others who think everyone is lunatic who spend that amount of money on a camera or lens. I don't intend to discuss what's worth because that is a very personal thing I cannot cover here. But maybe I can answer the question why Leica is more expensive than most other brands.
Size
First of all we all have to understand that Leica is a small company compared to the huge camera manufacturers like Canon or Sony for instance. Leica has about 1800 employees while Canon has over 130.000, Sony has more than 110.000, even Nikon is much bigger with its 20.000 employees. The numbers may not be totally accurate today, but the proportion is about right. So we can see that almost every other camera company is much bigger in size than Leica.
©Leica
Made in Germany
While it is becoming trendy again to manufacture all the cameras and lenses by the company, most of them still use offsite manufacturing factories in countries where labour is much cheaper. Hence the price can be lower and the profit can be larger. Not Leica though. They design, build and repair everything in Germany and in Portugal. They are really proud of the fact that their workforce is really well trained and fairly payed by European standards.
©Leica
Mass production vs. hand-made
Another reason for the higher price is that Leica cameras partly hand-made by highly trained technicians, not mass produced by machines. We can argue all day if this is necessary, but it is a fact that they do it this way and this is a costly thing to maintain. It is their heritage. The same goes for their lenses. They don't produce any lens or camera that is fully manufactured by computer aided robots. Leica uses digital technology to aid the manufacturing process, not to eliminate people from it. They think it is a much better approach and this procedure gives higher quality results.
©Leica
Quality
I have never in my life used any other camera that is so well built from such high quality materials. I know, used and tried a few brands from Canon, Sony, Fuji, Nikon and Panasonic. Honestly none of them is on par with Leica when it comes to quality of material used in their product. Probably the biggest testimony to Leica is their used market where it is not hard to find 10-20-30 year-old cameras that still work great. Or even you can find many faithful users who use their equipment through many decades. I don't say that other brands produce bad quality, that wouldn't be true. But if you have the chance to try a Leica, you'll instantly feel the difference in material and craftsmanship.
©Leica
Hype
We cannot deny the fact that hype is a huge factor when it comes to pricing a product. The bigger the hype is, the bigger the price tag. And I completely agree that sometimes a product is overhyped so it become overpriced. Just as in any other part of our life. The hyped car manufacturer can sell their cars for much higher price. The same goes with watch makers, sneakers, etc. This is how it works and we cannot change it. On the other hand if we are really honest, if anyone of us would have a company that could use the hype around its product to raise the price, we would definitely do it. Nobody would simply lower the price. Every company need the profit for research and development.
Of course as always the biggest question is: does a Leica camera worth the high price tag? Only you can answer that. If you feel that the quality of manufacturing and the quality of pictures the system produce worth the price, then yes. If it inspire you to go out and shoot more, then yes. If you plan to buy it simply because it is a well known brand and you can use it as a fashion and luxury item, then I think the answer is no. But who am I to judge? In my opinion everyone should use whatever he/she likes to use.