[Fatnino]

Those residential units would be full of people remote working so the satellite businesses (cafes and what-have-yous) could theoreticaly stay in business.

The reality is that a building owner doesn't want to lower the asking rent because it will devalue the building. They make more money owning a building with high rents than they lose having it sit empty. Nobody actually checks if these "high value" real estate properties on paper are actually occupied.

[acchow]

How does a real estate owner make more money by not collecting rent?