What artificial scarcity do you have in mind, bearing in mind that there is a true scarcity (or at least fixed supply) of land close to desirable places to live?
It's become normalized for people to buy houses/condos with large amounts of inflating debt. Because you're indebted, you can't simply sell what you've bought for any less than you owe, eat the loss and walk away, as you might do with something you flat out own. You'd still owe your lender, with interest.
I'd argue that this game creates a significant incentive for people to hold onto a housing units and pass debt onto renters, that it turns would-be owner-occupants into virtual speculators/landlords. I say "virtual" because they are really just tenants of their lenders (banks), and many of them aren't really in it for the "win", they're just in it by coercion, in it for the "not loss".
This whole scheme, and many others like it, artificially restricts supply and inflates prices.
Aka artificial scarcity. Wealthy landowners prevent housing of adequate density being built. Public transport is hard to fund due to the expense driven by negotiating with landholders.
Landowners are creating artificial scarcity; the thing that is not scarce is land; it is habitable spaces proximate to quality employment opportunities.
