Comment by cush

These things aren't mutually exclusive. There's a supply problem and it depends. You'd be right if there was only a demand for rentals, but people also want to buy homes to live in, and currently those people are completely priced out of the market by landlords because they've bought all the homes as investments. A landlord can buy a 10 bedroom sfh and split it up into student housing near a university (good), or they can buy a 2 bd bungalow and price a new family out of the market (bad). It just depends. It depends entirely on the market.