The root problem is that we allow vacancies. People can't just choose to not live somewhere and participate in the housing market. Vacancies allow renters to t

The root problem is that we allow vacancies. People can't just choose to not live somewhere and participate in the housing market. Vacancies allow renters to take advantage of this asymmetry by limiting market supply. They are naturally empowered to do this, because participation is inherently guaranteed. Renters don't even have to coordinate this behavior: it's a shared goal already (to maximize the price each asset, while minimizing the number of total assets that are sold/rented), which means this pattern will emerge naturally from any efficient real estate market. Like other commenters have recognized, this system can be compared to contract work. A contracted engineer can choose to allocate any arbitrary amount of her time to not working. This is a desirable pattern, because a person not working is a desirable outcome. In real estate, it's an undesirable pattern because a vacant home is an undesirable outcome.