Rental properties absolutely contribute to the problem. I even outlined one of the reasons as to why in the above comment. The problem isn't that housing prices

Rental properties absolutely contribute to the problem. I even outlined one of the reasons as to why in the above comment. The problem isn't that housing prices have passed some arbitrary threshold. Rising housing prices and easy profit from buying up property and renting it out eventually leads to neo-serfdom with the non-property-owning class being locked to renting for life. Moving property ownership to the people who want to live there is by definition part of the solution, and you don't own a property you rent.