Having lived in both NZ and Singapore I can second these comments. Although the 'a business cannot rent out a home' bit would probably not work in practice. There's definitely an ongoing need for commercial landlords, although govt's could do more to ensure this model is sustainable and fair for both landlord and renter, usually it swings in favour of one or the other.
Commercial landlords aren't the problem, per se. Ownership concentrated in a few massive entities is.
Outlawing owning >x% of a market's housing supply (for some low x) doesn't sound like the worst idea.
What we'd want is there to be (a) enough rental housing stock, (b) enough rental owning companies of comparable size to create a healthy market on rental prices, & (c) a sane balance between the number of rental and owner-occupied homes.
Part of the current imbalances are a consequence of low interest rates though, as investors could get a lot more leverage to acquire properties for rent.
Finding a balance is very difficult, any way you tip the scale its difficult to stop it from continuing to tip causing new problems :(
It's easy to point out problems, difficult to come up with solutions.
One thing I believe is that mortgage payments, and accessible mortgages should always be lower than the rental price so those who want to own rather than rent, it makes it a easier/better option. (does that make sense?)
