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by neilparikh 2178 days ago
The costs you mentioned are associated with the building itself. However, in a city like SF, much of the rent is driven by land value, which has no such holding costs [0]. So they still have a lot of "free" income coming in, as owners of a government granted monopoly in perpetuity (sounds a lot like feudalism...).

[0] - Except property taxes, but CA caps their increase, so if you've owned the property for a while now, the tax isn't in line with the rent you can charge.