They would be declining more without the software, you can still extract monopolistic rents in an economic downturn. Just because the rents have declined does

They would be declining more without the software, you can still extract monopolistic rents in an economic downturn. Just because the rents have declined does not mean they’re not monopolistic. A lot of this is geographical monopolies and actual liquid stock is often quite limited, so long as price is set at the margin and the managed property is on that margin they can elevate the price. This is easy enough to do as low rent options don’t stay on the market. Plus non-managed properties will benchmark themselves against the market which includes the managed properties allowing for price leadership. There is a whole zoo of anti-competitive behavior strewn through business that is tolerated due to the immense amount of money that is made that is beneficial to governments who tax it and politicians who receive donations. I don’t know how to fix it, step 1 seems to be fix political corruption and that already seems impossible. Once something becomes corrupted it’s very difficult to un-corrupt it.