Homes are being used as investments by institutions and nonresidents, in the West broadly, because there's a widespread belief (especially among homeowners) tha

Homes are being used as investments by institutions and nonresidents, in the West broadly, because there's a widespread belief (especially among homeowners) that homes should have a large ROI rather than being more of a consumption good, and so policies have slowly gravitated toward furthering that end -- NIMBYism and restrictive zoning laws, basically, but various other stuff too. Call me optimistic, but perhaps if more voters appreciated that "homes should be a good investment for the people owning and living in them" and "homes should be a good investment even if you're not living in them" and "the rent should be too damn high forever" all describe basically the same state of affairs, absent exceptionally well-designed policy that makes those not the same state of affairs, we'd see a slow drift over time away from this regressive nonsense.