It simply means that housing is being bought up by people who don't need their investments to return any cash flow.
Which is great if you're a wealthy oil tycoon from UAE or a Chinese billionaire. But not so great if you work in the city and want to buy a house for your family.
Didn't look at a lot of long-term vacant properties during & after the '08 crisis, I take it?
Modern houses aren't meant to survive in most climates, without heating and air conditioning. They grow mold from trapped humidity, and the finishes fall apart from expansion/contraction.
And this is assuming they were properly winterized before being abandoned, and that they don't suffer any damage that allows outright water infiltration (say, wind damage or a tree branch falling and letting water in through the roof or siding) or vandalism.
I've seen some that were starting to have serious problems less than a year after being abandoned. Thousands of dollars of damage already accrued.
[EDIT] Now, keep the heating and AC running at minimal levels and have someone check in on it every few months, then fix any problems that are developing, and that's another matter—but that costs money, and isn't something I've ever seen done with long-term-vacant institution-owned properties.
Abandoned? You know people own two homes and live in them seasonally w/o them being vandalized? Source: have a summer cabin that's never been rack sacked by vandals.
Which is great if you're a wealthy oil tycoon from UAE or a Chinese billionaire. But not so great if you work in the city and want to buy a house for your family.