I wasn't implying that they used force to confiscate the land, but that the very act of buying land to only lease it for a limited time would be deeply unpopular, and quickly voted out in a true democracy.

My own country had an authoritarian government that owned all land and property, and everyone was living as renters paying their rent to the government. In most cities, these properties were themselves actually built by the government, often on previously unused land (as they greatly expanded many cities). Once the revolution came and we had a (quasi-)democratic government, one of the very first acts was to give everyone ownership of the property they were leasing from government - and this was hugely popular.