Food is commoditized to the point where a lot of it involves slavery (Southern Europe) or exploitation of the state welfare system (UK), etc. So not quite the same.
Without homes to rent there would only be homes to buy and live in, taking all the rent seekers out the market would have a positive effect for most regular people because prices would fall to a level of basic affordability as we had had before 'buy to rent' became a bandwagon that everyone was jumping upon.
You can't introduce such wholescale inefficiency into a market without a lot of people suffering the consequences.
My parents bought their first house for about the same as the same house will fetch per month rental nowadays. That can't be right?
Without homes to rent there would only be homes to buy and live in, taking all the rent seekers out the market would have a positive effect for most regular people because prices would fall to a level of basic affordability as we had had before 'buy to rent' became a bandwagon that everyone was jumping upon.
You can't introduce such wholescale inefficiency into a market without a lot of people suffering the consequences.
My parents bought their first house for about the same as the same house will fetch per month rental nowadays. That can't be right?