Are there unlimited tourists? Sounds like a pretty sweet gig since tourism is like miracle grow for local economies. But alas no, there are not unlimited tourists, there is just limited housing supply.

I get tired of bringing it up but I lived in a Tokyo apartment, 5 walk minutes from a train station, 10 min walk to a large park, nice schools, very quite area though just 5 minutes walk to lots of restaurants. 750 sq ft, 4th floor with elevator, 15 year old building (at the time). Rent was (at the exchange rates of the time) $860/month. Inflation adjusted that’s $1,075 which can’t gets you a spare bedroom in first tier American cities.

At the time Tokyo had no restrictions on short term rentals nor on foreign investment or property investing or any kind.

Tokyo’s big secret is that they let developers build apartment buildings.

Why should they have to be explicitly built and zoned for renting? Why shouldn't they be used by tourists? Just make it easy to build more so that there is enough for everyone.