In the rest of the western world, landlords buy houses. They’re especially prolific for this in places with a high demand for housing, as this will maximise their profit extraction for the least amount of work. It’s a real problem, especially when the people denying mortgages to people are the same ones buying up the housing stock.

The same claim is made in the UK about the “real” problem being building regulations, as if forcing developers to build infrastructure like schools and roads (along with the houses they want to build) is a bad thing. Luckily though, the idea that the private sector could save us from themselves, at the expense of their own profit, is so silly that most people are informed enough to dismiss it instantly as nothing more than the corporate propaganda it is.

At some point, we have to start accepting the finite nature of land.