[imtringued]

It's much easier to earn $80k by not paying rent though. If we assume that the Chinese landlords had a well paying job they still had to spend years saving up money. A tenant can just decide to stop paying at any time if he knows he is immune from the court.

One reason why the housing market is such a shitshow is that there is antagonism between both sides. Tenants hate landlords, landlords hate tenants. Nobody will ever consider doing favors because the other side betrayed them.