In addition, most real estate is developed by developers who raise (other people's) money to purchase the property and redevelop it. These funds come from sever

In addition, most real estate is developed by developers who raise (other people's) money to purchase the property and redevelop it. These funds come from several places, but some of ultimate sources of such funds are... public pension funds (and possibly university endowments), who place their money with real estate lending groups. I'm not saying that ours is a good system, nor am I saying that it is well-executed. But an honest discussion of renting should include the fact that some of the "felt squeeze" of rent ultimately reaches back to pension funds that want to disburse regular payments to pensioners. (Regular payments come from having a certain percentage return on the money in the fund. The percentage return comes, in part, from investing in real estate redevelopment deals, which increase in value when the value/profit from a property is increased. Value/profit are increased via more units and higher rents.) This being said, the medium author does make some good points after accounting for the performative open letter tone, like about AirBnb's suing-cities-as-a-service as a business model, and the effect of Airbnb on local markets.