I feel like constraining access in this way would lead to some pretty nasty second-order effects if you didn't also redistribute a bunch of wealth from the 1% t

I feel like constraining access in this way would lead to some pretty nasty second-order effects if you didn't also redistribute a bunch of wealth from the 1% to the renters. Also with all rental properties being government-owned there would be zero uniqueness and everyone would be forced to make due with whatever the government thought they needed. A good example of this is old Soviet-style tower blocks, where no matter how big your family you get the same size apartment. At least with the current system, people who want to rent detached homes are able to. Your system would suffer from the alternating cycles of austerity that seem to plague governments and the tower blocks would gradually lose all amenities and everything would become exactly the same for the same price. I'm not sure that's better than the current system. A better system would just prohibit private equity from buying real estate and renting it. I think a lot of the housing price increases are due to PE firms buying rental houses and then farming their management out to local management companies.