It is true that speculative housing ownership does this, but the flip side is that many people can't actually afford a house (but can afford rent, eg. due to d

It is true that speculative housing ownership does this, but the flip side is that many people can't actually afford a house (but can afford rent, eg. due to down payment costs), or don't want to own (moves cities often). In larger multi-tenant buildings, the average person wouldn't buy, and the landlord provides services, like maintenance (and sometimes in gyms/etc in higher end buildings). Sure those services can be purchased on the free market anyways, but bundling is pretty common in business.