[Robin_Message]

If there is oversupply, why are retailers forced to rent and not able to purchase at the depressed market price?

(My theory, landlords are holding onto property in the hope of future returns rather than making a currently rational sale, and doing specific things like holding units empty or 364 day leases to avoid revaluations)

[coryrc]

Yes, and we need to punish them with things like vacancy tax. Just need to be careful we don't prevent good things -- for example, in Japan they have restaurants open only 4 hours a day in residential neighborhoods -- but we also don't want to let them do BS like "art gallery only open by appointment" but surely those also legitimately exist?