I believe they're referring to the practice of the extremely wealthy buying real estate in hot markets, not to actually use it, but in order to launder the sour

I believe they're referring to the practice of the extremely wealthy buying real estate in hot markets, not to actually use it, but in order to launder the source of their money. There are large numbers of never-occupied units in these cities; there are also efforts underway to stop the practice: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-set-unveil-long-awaited-crackdown-real-estate-money-laundering-2023-08-10/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-set-unveil-long-awaited-...