Yeah, Vancouver BC actually is creating policies like taxing unoccupied housing at a higher rate, instituting a tax on the sale of homes to foreign buyers, and further regulations around real estate "commoditization" and these are effective tools. I don't know why people say it's a difficult problem. Cities are actually just looking the other way.
I find that a lot of the criticisms of taxation and better housing policy are boiled down to the bad faith, we can't try anything because it's too complicated, but really they mean this is going to cause me or my rich friends problems so don't do it.
