Two Amsterdam tenants had great success in reporting their landlord to the Huurcommissie rent tribunal for charging them exorbitant rent. The Huurcommissie ordered the landlord to lower the rent for a small, leaky, drafty room on Keizersgracht from 1,950 euros to temporarily 95 euros per month. The rent for another room in the same building was lowered from 1,200 euros to temporarily 93 euros.
Well, no, flat prices wound crash in that case & again be affordable. It’s not like project devs wouldn’t build stuff & sell flats, it’s just that the financing wouldn’t come from financial industry directly (but via retail mortgages). Also less inflationary pressure on building materials and labor.
And … saying that ppl can’t afford to buy so they rent is bs if the rent is higher that the mortgage would have been.
That’s why socialist countries have less homeless ppl (and more homeowners) and why in a free market you would want to have homeless people (otherwise you are not maximizing your yield/rent).
Only if the supply exceeded the demand which just can’t be assumed - that’s the reason prices are high in cities in the first place. Construction prices have no reason to drop as they are driven by labour and materials. So only wealthy people and companies would have the means to build and companies wouldn’t do so for lack of profits in renting.
Which might happen in some weird fringe cases, but if the owner knows basic maths it usually won’t. You’d set rent at least high enough to repay your own loan on the property and make some profit.
And if it were true why not buy right now? Because the bank won’t give you a loan. And that too wouldn’t suddenly change.