Correct. When rents get too far ahead of mortgages, people simply buy property instead. In your first example, the landlord is amortizing expenses by charging

Correct. When rents get too far ahead of mortgages, people simply buy property instead. In your first example, the landlord is amortizing expenses by charging rent above their ownership costs. It doesn't have to be at or higher than then current new mortgage rates. The second example does happen. However, if the landlord's bet is wrong, and they have the runway to float the extra expenses for a while, they can simply wait for rents to rise and over decades make it back and begin amortizing then. Or they can sell and hope to make it back. Property owners have many more financial options with their property than do renters.