- An investor's margin on appreciation of real estate will be much higher if it's rented out rather than empty. - An investor who owns whole buildings/units h

- An investor's margin on appreciation of real estate will be much higher if it's rented out rather than empty. - An investor who owns whole buildings/units has massive economies of scale from renting out. - Hedging, money laundering or diversification are orthogonal to letting/leaving-empty, see also the original article. - I don't see empirical evidence of buildings/units are are owned outright and left empty in London and a substantial scale. Please supply quantitative evidence to the contrary if you have any. Where are all those empty building in London? - Regarding landlord/slumlord. As far as I'm aware, most large developments are done by investment funds insurance etc. Names like Trump and Kushner are too emotionally charged to lead to a serious discussion, and I'd appreciate if you could quantify what fraction of the London property market is left empty for speculative purposes.