Considering you and the landlord have opposite goals(you want to minimize rent, she wants to maximize it), it is unlikely you would find a situation where long residential leases are offered.
"Considering you and the landlord have opposite goals..."
They don't. Both want long term stability although some owners don't know that this is what they want :o). Landlords who try to maximise the rent face quick change of tenants (who don't stop looking for affordable places) and less care for their property. The price and stress overhead of finding new tenants is not worth the gain, in my experience. Not to forget, that real estate dealers often try to take money from both sides.
Why is that? You might be right, but your argument isn't intuitive to me.
Landlords are afraid of rent going down, and renters are afraid of rent going up, so a long-term contract would be nice because it could simultaneously reduce stress for both of them.
These are the trades that create value--trades that reduce risk for everyone!
Each party has different acceptable levels of risk, and different outlooks on the market. Imagine a hot market. What landlord would sign a long term contract? Imagine if a landlord in silicon valley rented a house out on a 20 year lease 15 years ago. Big mistake.
This happens in other futures markets all of the time. The price/month of a long-term lease ends up being a bit more than the price/month of a short-term lease.
The same thing happens in interest rate markets: if you want to borrow money short-term, the interest rate is pretty low; long-term borrowing is scarier for the lender, though, so the rate charged is much higher (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yield_curve).
They don't. Both want long term stability although some owners don't know that this is what they want :o). Landlords who try to maximise the rent face quick change of tenants (who don't stop looking for affordable places) and less care for their property. The price and stress overhead of finding new tenants is not worth the gain, in my experience. Not to forget, that real estate dealers often try to take money from both sides.