[vitriol83]

In general you're right it's unfair to say that real estate investment is always unproductive and rent-seeking. However for major cities like London with tight supply, the flows of real estate investment that followed QE and zero interest rates haven't been matched by appropriate levels of home building. As a result affordability and ownership levels have reached historic lows, and many more people are becoming 'unwilling' renters, only able to service the financing costs of real estate investors. At this stage it becomes rent-seeking and unproductive, in my view, and there ought to be appropriate policy responses from government.