[Panzer04]

Rents are certainly not always higher than costs. Plenty of "investor" landlords buying properties that return less in rent than the mortgage expenses of said property (or the cost of capital).

Making 4% in rent isn't great when the mortgage interest is 6%. The difference is made up out of the landlord's pocket, and they gamble on capital gains to make up the shortfall (or rising rents vs a mostly fixed mortgage expenses)

[dahart]

Sure, rents can be temporarily lower than costs in the short term. In the long term if that happens, the landlord ceases to be a landlord.

[JumpCrisscross]

> rents can be temporarily lower than costs in the short term. In the long term if that happens, the landlord ceases to be a landlord

In the very long run, yes. In the medium term, as in decades, home-price appreciation has let landlords in several markets run at a loss and rely entirely on capital gains for profits.