[estearum]

Landlords are different things from developers.

Sometimes (more rarely than people think) a single entity plays both roles, but it's impossible to reason about this space if you conflate the two

Yes, developers build homes to make money. This is how approximately 100% of the housing supply in the US was created.

[rybosworld]

I was not conflating the two - I literally meant that there are incentives in place to encourage landlords to develop new homes. I am not referring to groups whose primary interest is to develop and sell - but to develop and own.

I know a lot of landlords think they are a persecuted class that is providing a necessary service - but that largely isn't true.

Broadly you can imagine two scenarios for simplicity sake.

1) Housing supply is abundant. Landlords have to compete on service superior maintenance, better units, better locations, etc.). Renting a home behaves like any other service industry that we come to know and love.

2) Housing supply is constrained. The situation plaguing much of the modern world. Land is limited. Landlords earn a higher IRR from jacking rents than they do from buying additional units. The landlords profit from control of the access to a scare resource rather than from providing anything of value.

Plainly: rent-seeking is evil.