Cornering the market, or a sufficiently large portion of it, doesn't necessarily drive prices higher. Demand plus cheap credit (and Wall Street shenanigans) are at least as much to blame.
This is maybe a stupid question, but if credit is cheap, shouldn’t it be easier to finance a housebuilding operation? In the very low interest rates from say 2008-2020, I think we saw less housebuilding in the United States than before.
Interest rates tripled in the past few years, and home prices continued their upward march throughout most of the U.S. Do you mean something else by "cheap credit"?
Tripled from a hundred year low. Kinda normal to mildly low still.
Prices are up since people did 30yr mortgages at obscenely low rates, and don’t sell/move in order to keep them. That group will eventually rotate out. Ironically, somewhat lower rates will cause a housing price decline.
Unless you are willing to hold the asset at 40% occupancy without changing prices because preserving the on paper value is more important than profiting from rent.
This is unfalsifiable voodoo. It can be used to describe practically any economic phenomenon.