In practice, landlords don't compete for tenants; tenants compete for apartments. The median rent in NYC is like $5k/month, and it has the lowest vacancy rates

In practice, landlords don't compete for tenants; tenants compete for apartments. The median rent in NYC is like $5k/month, and it has the lowest vacancy rates in 30 years. In the US more generally, people are spending like 40% of their take-home on rent. There is zero pressure on landlords to do anything for tenants. Tenants are barely even full citizens. You can't get a license or a bank account without an address, i.e., without paying rent. Landlords do compete with other landlords to buy properties. That's the only competition they're involved in.