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I think you're misusing the term "Rent Seeking". The important part of its definition is the manipulation of the social or political environment to gain financial advantage. It has nothing to do with collecting rent from a tenant.

An example of rent-seeking would be if I were a steel producer and I ask the government to impose a tariff on imported steel.

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It is quite appropriate actually. Speculative property buying is very much about trying to capture wealth without creating any wealth.

C.f. also NIMBYism.

1. Speculative property buying provides liquidity to an otherwise exceptionally illiquid market.

2. You have literally just described the stock market.

1. given that it doesn't change the amount of property, how does it provide anything at all?

2. The stock market is exactly people trying to get rich without adding any value to the world.

Where do you expect tech workers to sell their RSUs?

1. This hasn't been demonstrated. In fact, when there is a housing shortage in the areas considered that strongly hints that friction in housing purchase is due to other factors than being able to match a buyer with a seller. So the average dollar value of this supposed liquidity is likely to be miniscule compared to the average dollar value of the capital appreciation.

2. I'm not going to get bogged down refuting bad analogies here.

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