Private equity will only benefit if the supply of housing is artificially restricted or they are able to capture a substantial portion of the market. Both these problems can be solved by adjusting the local regulatory levers to make construction easy and collusion/anticompetitive behavior hard.
"Buying an entire development" is arguably anticompetitive behavior and can be prevented by the government.
Unfortunately, many communities and cities restrict home building to ensure that rents and values are artificially inflated.
My city's housing development department is run by the Chairman's (our version of a Mayor) nephew, the husband of a previous member, an owner of the largest property management company in the county, and an owner of a landscaping business. I attempted to join the housing development department but the positions are specifically appointed by the "Mayor". Our "Mayor" is also not elected via public voting, since they are a Chairman they have to be removed by the Board, and the Chairman has held this role since 1975.
Ultimately, until this Chairman passes or is (somehow) removed from their role, there is nothing that anyone in our city can do to rectify this. And I believe this is a common problem across many cities outside of Metro areas (where the housing supply issue is more apparent).
Sounds like a terrible local government. Have you considered moving away? Local governments compete with each other to attract taxpayers, and if enough people leave they'll be forced to change their political structure.
This town has the best school districts in my state, close proximity to interstates since I work in the core of our metro area, and (somewhat) affordable housing prices as it's not the "wealthy" community. Plus I've locked my rent in at pre-pandemic levels and moving away would cause my rent expenses to almost double due to the surging rent prices everywhere else.
It's a terrible local government, but right now I'm not in a position to move anywhere else without ending up driving 3hrs a day to go to work and paying way more than I can afford.
"Buying an entire development" is arguably anticompetitive behavior and can be prevented by the government.